The Ultimate Headcanon, and other stories
by barbara princess of delphi
Summary: Elsa's parents took their one darkest secret to the grave with them. They, themselves, were brother and sister… Cover story title bestowed by anonymous bloggers. A collection of shorts and borrowable ideas for longer stories, mainly Elsanna with various Kristanna and Kristelsanna mixed in. Updated 1/9: Elsanna LOTR with Elsa as Sauron and Anna as the One Ring
1. The Truth about Elsa's Parents

_This is a collection of story ideas/headcanons I haven't seen posted yet that I hope someone will take up. These ideas include lots of background info about the world of Frozen, as well as pairing ideas for Kristanna, Elsanna (mostly), Kristelsanna three-ways, and unconsummated pairing ideas._

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_This idea was dubbed "the ultimate headcanon" by some members of the Elsanna tumblr community, so it's first on the list..._

Elsa's parents took their one darkest secret to the grave with them.

They, themselves, are brother and sister, their love so strong and true that it conquered every obstacle and allowed them to hide their secret from the world – but not from the heavens. As punishment for their un-natural union, their firstborn (Elsa) was cursed, leading to years of suffering by their entire family.

(Elsa's parents could not have pulled off their marriage without outside help. They went to the trolls, begging Pabbie to make their feelings go away. But he could not, because "the heart is not so easily changed," and instead helped them to get married - by faking the sister's death and allowing her to pose as a wealthy foreign princess, whom the brother would then "choose" as his bride.)

But it turns out there was a perfectly natural cause after all: Nature herself sometimes makes mistakes. Due to a fluke germ-line mutation in Elsa's grandmother, both of Elsa's parents were biologically insensitive to the Westermarck effect, and as a result, experienced non-normative "genetic sexual attraction" wherein their close sibling bond and shared traits (from genetic similarity) only increased their unconscious desire for each other as perfect mates. Elsa and Anna inherit this mutation (since both their parents have it), and as a result, are similarly irresistibly drawn to each other – though they never know the true reason, as modern biology doesn't exist in their time.

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_This idea was my second most popular submission..._

Anna never got the "birds and bees" talk, and actually doesn't know what sex is throughout the events of the movie

Anna was only 15 when her parents died, and typical age of puberty is much higher in their time than in the present day. So mom never got to give Anna "the talk" (about the duty of a princess upon marriage). This means Anna literally does not know that by asking to marry Hans she's also asking to have sex with him (and she wants Elsa to give her blessing). She doesn't even know what sex is. To her, it's all just something that she'll find out after she gets married (which is the ideal, but is just some nebulous concept in her head that she's been taught is a good thing).

Elsa, however, did get "the talk" (being 18 when their parents died) and she DOES know what it means for Anna to get married. She also knows that Anna probably doesn't know! (That's partly why she wants to talk to Anna in private – to ascertain whether Anna did or didn't get "the talk")

After the movie, Kristoff is aghast to find out that Anna doesn't know what sex is. He doesn't want to give her the talk, both because it's not right for him to take advantage of her and because it's really best if she gets the talk from a woman, preferably a family member – meaning her sister.

This means that *Anna has to ask Elsa for the "sex talk" after the events of the movie*

But, having had "the talk" herself, Elsa is also painfully aware of the true nature of her feelings for Anna. And that means Elsa really, REALLY doesn't want to be the one talking about this with Anna!

Elsa knows that she would have denied Anna's request to get married *regardless* of who Anna brings as a suitor. And she hates herself for it, and she fears being discovered (which is another source of the fear she felt when Anna came for her on North Mountain – her fear of accidentally freezing Anna, which is mostly because she has that underlying fear of her romantic feelings in the first place that is keeping her from controlling her powers).

At the end of the film, Elsa is so relieved that Anna came back to life that the pure joy allows her to thaw everything. However, it won't be long before Anna starts getting serious with Kristoff and Elsa's jealousy is re-triggered.

So what does Elsa do when Anna asks her about sex?

Well, that's anyone's guess.

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_Hope these ideas have given you some inspiration for your own fics! There are plenty more, check out the chapter menu._


	2. We Shared a Body: Story of Queen Elsanna

_What if Elsa and Anna switched bodies? (We'll get back to that one later. Here's a better idea: What if they got stuck in the same body?)_

Elsa suppresses her true love/desire for Anna in order to "free" Anna to be happy with Kristoff. This causes Elsa's powers to flare out of control and freeze the whole kingdom again.

Summer crops are dying, and Elsa knows that if Anna finds out why, she'll do anything to make Elsa happy, even things she doesn't want to (like incest). Elsa can't accept that, so there's only one other way out. She commits suicide to save Arendelle from eternal winter, leaving a note for Anna.

But Anna is so distraught that she tries to join Elsa in death. Heading towards the light at the end of the tunnel, having left her body behind, Elsa looks back when someone yells her name and is horrified to see Anna excitedly coming up behind her – because only spirits of the dead can appear in this space! Elsa's parents are waving to her up ahead, but Elsa's attention is immediately taken by her sister behind her. Elsa feels her non-existent heart pounding as she fearfully asks Anna how she got here. Her worst fears have come true once more; Anna followed her example.

Instead of welcoming Anna to the afterlife (as Anna expects), Elsa shoves her backwards, trying to push Anna back into her body on Earth – which was found just in time by the servants and is being bandaged and busily attended to. It's a familiar pattern for both sisters; Elsa pushing Anna away, but this time Anna won't let her. The sister spirits argue in the tunnel between life and death, Anna refusing to go back to the living world without Elsa, Elsa determined to save her sister's life so as to avoid being responsible for her death yet again. They are stalemated, Anna's grief pushing against Elsa's guilt. Elsa uses up all her arguments, and finally, in desperation, confesses her incestuous feelings – but even then, Anna chooses her sister over her own promising romance, feeling that she doesn't deserve to be happy when her sister can't be.

The tug of war continues. As they hover invisibly above the chaos around Anna's bed, the doctor and servants are about to give up on reviving the princess, when Kristoff barges in and starts crying over Anna's apparently dead body. This breaks spirit-Anna's concentration for just a moment and Elsa triumphantly forces Anna back into her body… but Anna recovers just in time to grab Elsa and pull her along – and both sisters wake up together in Anna's body amidst great confusion! Both Elsa and Anna see through her opened eyes Kristoff, Kai, and Gerda all sobbing in relief over them, then find themselves incoherently trying to speak different words out of the same mouth, then freeze upon hearing each other's thoughts in what feels like "their" head – though both quickly realize it's actually Anna's head.

The two sisters find they're both able to control the body and share every sensation, and one has to remain completely passive to allow the other to act naturally. They struggle the most when they move involuntarily (as in laughing, or orgasming) as they both end up pulling their limbs in slightly different motions, causing horrible un-coordination. At first Elsa tried to stay dormant and not hijack Anna's body, but Anna is delighted to share, noting that her sister was always the graceful one. They can both hear each other's thoughts, so that they're now even closer than they were as children. Elsa finds that she actually misses her powers, but learns to enjoy her newfound freedom of emotion and finds herself happier living in her sister's head than she ever was as her own person. It seems they have both saved each other's lives, in a way, even though the world will never know.

One fascinating side effect of being trapped in Anna's body is that Elsa, who was never previously attracted to the opposite gender, now finds herself subject to Anna's hormones and pheromones. Thus, she feels the same arousal as Anna when they go on dates with Kristoff and realizes she might just enjoy a conventional marriage after all. Meanwhile, Anna is also affected by the imprint of Elsa's deep and true love, which previously drove Elsa's incestuous impulses and now causes Anna to be strangely aroused by her own body in a way she never was before her near-death experience. In their previous lives Anna would have found it awkward to put on a show for her own sister, but somehow when Elsa is watching from within her head rather than outside, everything is completely okay. In an irony of cosmic proportions, Anna is thrilled to let Elsa move her own fingers for her, on her own body, in ways that she'd never have let Elsa's fingers do in their old lives. She feels her limbs move without any instruction from her, and can almost imagine that they aren't her own; she imagines Kristoff's touch, or Elsa's, the latter thought drawing an amused and sadly ironic chuckle from Elsa that doesn't leave the confines of her skull. After climaxing, Anna then takes over and returns the favor for Elsa, and the sounds coming from her throat do in fact sound noticeably different the second time around. The ecstasy is always shared, though.

Meanwhile, Kai, Gerda, and Kristoff are all extremely relieved, unaware that two souls are now sharing Queen Anna's body; they assume she's just confused due to being barely revived from her suicide attempt. In the initial months, they are glad that 'Anna' seems happier and is no longer depressed from losing Elsa, but find it strange how suddenly Anna has turned into an exceptional queen, often acting very much like Elsa once did while at court. Kristoff unquestioningly allows Anna some space when she asks for it, accepting "her" assurances that she still loves him and just needs some time to think. But as the months pass by, they notice that Anna sometimes talks to herself, or seems to listen to voices no one else hears; and Anna becomes unusually un-coordinated when laughing, or when startled, as if unable to decide how to move. And it is far too suspicious that Anna seems to have gotten over Elsa's death so completely, so suddenly, when her grief previously drove her to suicide! So one day Kai and Gerda try to test Anna by asking her something that Elsa probably didn't tell Anna before she died – but Elsa sees through the trick immediately and the sisters rapidly debate keeping their secret – but they decide their old servants are trustworthy. They also confess to Kristoff, feeling that it's only fair for him to know exactly who he's going to marry before they go through with it. After some advice from Pabbie, Kristoff is completely accepting.

A year later, at Arendelle Castle, Kristoff publicly says his marriage vows to Anna alone. But up in the mountains, the ordinary-looking human couple are trollfully wedded as man, wife, and wife – an exciting event for the younger trolls (under 100 years of age), as the three-way marriage ritual is so rare that the troll children are performing it for the first time ever. Kristoff says his vows once; his bride says them twice – once under Anna's control and once under Elsa's.

On their wedding night, after Kristoff cries out Anna's name, the sisters tease him by pretending Elsa's in control, only to switch back to being "Anna" after he tries to make it up to "Elsa". Of course, they can't keep it up long because both Elsa and Anna feel every sensation of their shared body even when not actively controlling it. In daily life they have gotten pretty good at holding back and giving the other one her turn to be in control, through lots of practice, but Kristoff's touches make them both want to move so much that for the first several months they're jerking about and pulling muscles or accidentally hitting something every time they have sex. In time, they get used to the intense pleasure and gradually improve their coordination. Kristoff starts to call them "Elsanna" whenever they are in private, although in public they still use only Anna's name. The irony is that the vast majority of the time when the councilors address Queen Anna, it's actually Elsa who answers to that name, since she's better at the regal act. She does better on some days than others, as it's sometimes a challenge to concentrate on business against the background of Anna teasing her with vivid fantasies.

Their second Halloween together, the sisters decide to pull the prank of a lifetime on Kristoff. They dye Anna's hair white and re-braid it in Elsa's former style and put on one of Elsa's old dresses before sneaking back into bed next to Kristoff. His cry of terror the next morning wakes them up and also cuts their prank short as they both jerk awake simultaneously, their lack of coordination giving themselves away. But the laugh is worth it. A few minutes later, they run their entire prank on Sven, with Elsa acting and looking like she used to. Sven panics and runs to find Kristoff, who is peeking in from the doorway, laughing.

In their dreams, only in their dreams, Elsa sees herself back in her original body, with Anna next to her. The first few weeks Elsa is often disoriented to wake up having switched back to Anna's physical form. For the first several months sharing a body, they are often awoken by their nightmares – they each now see themselves in the other's nightmares, since both of them are dreaming from the same physical brain. They've both died in each other's dreams a thousand times; Anna has been impaled night after night by Elsa's icicles, Elsa has felt Hans's sword cut into her neck, each time causing them both to wake up, one in terror and the other confused to still be alive and un-injured. It's become so habitual that over time, they learn to figure out when they're in a nightmare under the other's control. One night, as Anna relives her nightmare of being a step too slow to stop Hans, she sees dream-Elsa roll out of the way of Hans's sword and freeze him in a solid ice cube – the shock makes Anna realize she's dreaming, and they enjoy the rest of that dream, playing with Elsa's powers, remembering she won't have them anymore when they wake up. Another night, Anna dodges Elsa's icicles just in time, grabbing control of Elsa's dream and turning it into another fun-filled hour for them both. As the years pass by, they sleep better.

Then, after several blissful years together, the sisters face their biggest test of coordination upon discovering they're pregnant! The pregnancy goes well, but the labor is a tremendous struggle for both of them. After some painful hours of Anna appearing to shout to herself while the doctor watches in puzzlement, the sisters finally figure out how to take turns pushing, and are blessed with a son. They name him Olaf, in memory of the snowman who melted after Elsa's suicide in the dark times years ago. Prince Olaf is a little more like his namesake than one hopes from a prince, and even with parents as patient and tolerant as Kristoff, Elsa, and Anna, he is well into adulthood before he finally masters his duties. But his goofiness conceals exceptional powers of observation; it is ten-year-old Olaf who exposes a foreign spy's scheming in the royal court just in the nick of time.

Later on, the Queen(s?) has a daughter and debates naming her Elsanna (the name she/they can never use themselves), but decide to keep that name between themselves and Kristoff. Their daughter, much to the royal council's public annoyance but secret amusement, becomes Princess Marshmallow of Arendelle. The girl fortunately inherits both Elsa's sedateness and Anna's sense of humor, so that despite her ridiculous name she grows into a perfectly ladylike princess. She goes through the same lessons as her brother, taking much more easily to the sciences and Elsa's etiquette lessons and struggling much more with the soldiery, but the real legend of Princess Marshmallow begins at her coming-of-age ceremony. Word soon spreads of the placid young woman's ability to introduce herself with a completely straight face, not moving a muscle even while watching each of her suitors struggle and often fail to contain his laughter. She seems even icier than her aunt Elsa ever was, completely unaffected by either the constant snickering or by the whispered speculation over whether her apparent lack of emotion might carry over to bedroom activities.

Decades later, the elderly queen has turned the kingdom over to Prince Olaf and decides to finally reveal her secret identity to ensure that history records "her" reign with proper credit. The official kingdom chronicles are edited to show that Elsa and Anna reigned together, two queens in one, making three monarchs after Kristoff became king. The few remaining servants who knew the sisters as children smile knowingly at each other; this revelation explains so much of "Queen Anna"'s puzzling behavior over the years.

Queen Elsanna dies peacefully surrounded by her (their?) family and is buried in a single grave next to husband Kristoff, but with two headstones, one for each sister who comprised the late queen. Meanwhile, finally returning to the same tunnel between life and death, the sisters see their parents eagerly waving to them from the light in the distance, and this time they both eagerly step towards the afterlife… only to trip and fall flat on their face –

Wait, "face"? The sisters both try to turn to look at each other – and their head locks in place as their non-existent neck muscles strain against each other –

It seems that Elsa and Anna have been integrated into one for so long, that their souls have gotten entangled and mixed together – they still hear each other's voices and coordinate their movements to look at themselves…

They both see the same thing: A ghostly form dressed half in Elsa's clothing and half in Anna's, a braid of white hair on one shoulder and red hair on the other…

Their parents, who were expecting to welcome two daughters, are instead greeted by a single fused chimera. "Mama, Papa!" Elsa's and Anna's voices ring out in synchrony, both clearly distinguishable for the first time in years. Where previously in the real world they would become tongue-tied if both tried to speak at once, now that they are spirits they can both talk over each other's voices, not limited by sharing only one set of vocal cords. The daughter hugs both her smiling, but puzzled, parents. "Elsa?" The girl nods affirmatively. "Anna?" Another nod. "We're Elsanna!" they say in unison, and their parents stare. Kristoff and Sven, standing beside them, howl in laughter, with Kristoff joking: "Now _this_ is the woman I married!" The joke being, of course, that 'this woman' is actually two different people, magically merged.

In time, they are gradually restored to their original forms as two individual souls, though they retain the ability to merge into a single entity and take on the appearance of either sister or a mixture of both. When appearing separately, Anna deliberately keeps a white streak in her hair, and Elsa adds a red one in hers to match, so that they always have a piece of each other. Their story becomes one of the most popular epics in the celestial kingdom, just as it did on Earth. Since imagination is the only limit in this place, they go on to live happily ever after in their dream home, a garishly decorated ice castle, with their husband Kristoff and pet snowmen Olaf and Marshmallow.


	3. Cycle of Shame: sin, repent, sin again

_They resist each other for months at a time, but finally they fall to temptation. Then they regret it the next morning, repent, and avoid each other… until they miss each other as sisters and agree to be "just sisters again"… and then the temptation builds up again. Rinse and repeat._

The film setting makes it very likely that Arendelle is a Christian kingdom (not an ultra-Puritan one, but Christian nonetheless). This means Elsa and Anna were raised with the Bible as their major morality. As a result, after falling to their temptations they both wake up guilty and ashamed the next morning, the sexual tension now resolved and no longer distracting them from the sinfulness of their feelings. They avoid each other for several days afterwards, both instinctively trying to punish themselves by depriving themselves of the other's company.

It's less than a day before both Anna and Elsa are missing each other, even just as sisters. After three more days with no interaction, Anna cracks under the pressure and knocks on Elsa's door again, rationalizing to herself that they've suffered enough punishment, and convincing herself out loud that they need each other as sisters and can both agree to not succumb to their sexual desires. Anna's voice through the door is what breaks Elsa's will to continue her self-flagellation. The door springs open and they fly into each other's arms, sisters once more.

They spend a week doing fluffy, sisterly things together before the sexual tension starts to creep back in, slowly and un-noticed at first, but gradually building. Both unwilling to talk about it, they each fight to keep seeing each other as merely sisters, rationalizing away all the touches that are creeping towards sensitive areas as the weeks go by, all the stolen glances when the other isn't looking.

Several weeks later, they finally snap after Anna has a nightmare one night and creeps into Elsa's bed for comforting. They wake up entangled, hands under each other's clothing, their libidos awaken faster than their brain function, and by the time they realize what's happening they're both naked and satisfied again, just like the first time. But then the sun streams in through Elsa's window and as their post-coital high wears off, their guilty consciences return in full force. They again go back to avoiding each other, repenting for their sins, etc, and this time it's a whole week before their sisterly longing once again overcomes their shame and drives them to see each other.

Talking through Elsa's door, they come up with an extensive list of rules to control themselves and limit their physical contact. This proves difficult since they often have impulses to touch or hug in platonic sisterly ways and have to constantly remind themselves not to – and each time they resist touching, it causes them to also remember why they have to resist touching, so that each aborted gesture that started out sisterly reminds them of their non-sisterly attraction as well, thereby pushing it to the front of their minds. As a result, their rules for not touching have actually just made it worse – and they soon find their desire building up even faster than before. They manage to stay platonic for several weeks, but more and more of their waking thoughts are consumed by the very desire they were trying to avoid – as the act of avoiding it simply makes it stronger.

Inevitably the tension snaps like a rubber band and another explosive night together is followed, yet again, by the familiar morning-after guilt and several more weeks of avoidance. Elsa decides that they must always have a door between them, and when Anna starts camping outside her door, Elsa evades her by conjuring ice ladders and pathways from her window over to the window of her study, the ballroom, etc. Anna's only consolation is that Elsa is still willing to talk through the door, and she gives up on ever seeing it opened again.

But then, Anna's birthday comes, and Anna persuades Elsa to come out just for her special day. They have lots of fun, but when Elsa finally retires to her room, Anna won't let go of her. After months without even seeing each other, the tension is too much. They wake up the next morning once again shamefully entwined, and their cycle begins anew.

Every few months they go through a full cycle: avoiding each other out of shame, then caving in to the need for their sibling's company, then fighting the return of their feelings as lovers, then finally caving in and returning to the ashamed state. Even Anna's marriage to Kristoff doesn't stop the rubber band from occasionally yanking them back together. Miraculously, Kristoff never seems to notice those mornings when both sisters go red in the face upon seeing him. (In fact, he knows – but lacking a Christian upbringing, he simply accepts it as another quirk of his quirky wife.)

Morals ingrained into a child from birth are exceedingly difficult to change even as adults. It is the same conscience, the same moral code, that approves of them being sisters yet condemns their inevitable progression to more-than-sisters. And that ensures the cycle will never end.

The sisters never stop hearing the little voices in their heads, telling them they're not supposed to love each other this way, that it's wrong and their ancestors must be spinning in their graves. The moments preceding each frenzied coupling are always filled with guilt and foreboding, before passion temporarily drowns it out – for only a short time. After each episode, their consciences regain control and keep them apart for a short time. But when they see each other longing for their sister's company again, the guilt over being a bad sister and making their beloved person unhappy overwhelms the guilt of their carnal sins, driving them back together and giving each of them the force of will to bury their more primitive urges – for a time. After a long deprivation, just seeing each other again is so euphoric that they have no trouble staying sisters – but inevitably the euphoria wears off. Then it's a matter of willpower, as they both know that if either of them makes a move, they'll pay for it with another month of guilt and loneliness… so they pull back from the brink, over and over, until the haze of desire has clouded their judgment enough, and depleted their stores of self-control enough to make them fall into the abyss once again. And every time they regret it the next morning when they realizes what they've done and can't bear to look at each other, and they trudge off to their penance, which they really should have seen coming…

Sisters, then strangers, then sisters again, the servants gradually learn to predict the oscillations like clockwork – though few know of the third fleeting stage of the cycle, that lasts only a night at most.

In time, Elsa and Anna begin to recognize that this cycle will continue for the rest of their lives, though they never admit it out loud. They rationalize that everyone has their vices and theirs is somehow okay because "it's true love". And for a while, things seem okay.

But when Anna gives birth to a white-haired child with ice powers, the three royals learn the hard way that people other than themselves are not so willing to excuse their behavior…


	4. It was all a dream… Elsa's dream (pt 1)

_"It Was All A Dream" - Version 1: Elsa_

**_All of the events of Frozen take place in Elsa's dreams one night._**

After a happy day of celebration/skating with Anna, Elsa wakes up to find herself still iced into her room and dreading her coronation the following day. She realizes the entire harrowing sequence of narrowly escaped deaths was all a dream, and the happy ending of the dream doesn't do much to reduce Elsa's fear of what might happen in real life…

OPTION 1

Time ticks on inexorably and the following day Elsa has her coronation, followed by standing next to Anna at the ball. When she realizes everything has been going exactly the way it did in her dream, she frantically tries to think of a way to prevent what she knows will happen – Anna meeting Hans. Unable to locate Anna in time to prevent Hans's initial marriage proposal, Elsa hastily gives them her blessing in order to prevent Anna snatching her glove. However, after the ball ends and Elsa retreats to her room, she realizes that she needs to trick Hans into revealing his intentions somehow, as she only has her dream to go on, and no actual evidence that would convince anyone else (especially Anna). She gets Kai, Gerda, and a few loyal guards to help. Shortly after Hans and Anna are married, Elsa orders them to join her for tea; then, Kai "privately" (with Elsa and guards hidden behind a curtain) asks Hans to buy her a rare chocolate from her favorite shop in the town as a surprise for the queen. While he's gone, Kai and Gerda inform Anna that they've discovered something about her new husband. Anna and Elsa wait in the tea room for Hans to return. Kai escorts him in and they "surprise" Elsa with the treat, and Hans excitedly watches Elsa open the package and raise a chocolate to her mouth… but suddenly she slams it down in front of Hans and accuses him of poisoning them. Shocked, Hans tries to make an excuse but realizes he's been set-up when two guards appear from behind a curtain. Anna learns a harsh lesson about love that day, and after getting over the shock, realizes she should thank her sister for not being as naïve as herself – but Elsa has already retired to her room, having exhausted her control of her emotions and ice powers for the day. But in the following weeks, inspired by her dream, Elsa discovers that she can thaw her ice by thinking loving thoughts after all. She starts talking to Anna through her door again and one day, finally opens her door, to much squeals of delight.

OPTION 2

Shortly after Elsa wakes up from her dream, there's a knock on the door. Anna had the exact same dream and pours out her fears to Elsa, not expecting any response. She's about to shuffle away when Elsa calls out to her. At first Elsa is still afraid to open the door and is only trying to pin down the details of what to avoid/what not to do at her coronation the next day, so she doesn't see Anna's tears of joy at hearing her voice for the first time in several months. They end up talking through her door all day and Elsa notices her ice receding.

As a result of their talk, Anna treats Hans so frostily the next day that Hans gives up on marrying into Arendelle entirely, moving on to easier targets and never knowing why both sisters are so hostile to him. Anna also subtly trips the Duke of Weselton when he dances with her. The sisters make it through the party without revealing Elsa's powers.

The next day, Anna sets out to find Kristoff, her destined true love according to the premonitions both sisters shared. Unable to find him after a week of searching, she goes to the trolls, only to learn that their adopted son Kristoff was killed by brigands in the forest, the very morning after Anna was originally supposed to have met him and diverted his path towards North Mountain instead of back down towards the villages.

It seems that the entire sequence of events in the dream (as shown in the movie) was actually necessary to bring Kristoff into their lives. Anna is heartbroken, and Elsa is heartbroken for her, too.

OPTIONAL – Headcanon rescue

Both sisters are relieved to wake up and realize that the whole sequence leading to Pabbie informing them of Kristoff's death was *also* a dream. They plan things better on their next and final attempt, getting through Elsa's coronation without incident and then setting off together that very night to save Kristoff from his default fate.

With Elsa's magic helping them up the mountain, they succeed in intercepting Kristoff at Oaken's shop, and pay for his tools and the carrots for Sven, in return for a ride to see the trolls (and thus, diverting him up the mountain and away from the bandits they would have encountered if they'd gone back to town). The trolls promptly start teasing Kristoff about having brought home TWO girls, argue amongst themselves which one is Kristoff's true love, and quickly line up into two groups (one advocating for Anna and the other for Elsa), much to Kristoff's embarrassment and both sisters' amusement (since they had some forewarning of the trolls' antics from their visions). After a brief and loud public debate, the trolls decide that both loves are "true," surround all three of them, dress them up in "troll wedding" garb and start a three-way marriage ceremony. Pabbie arrives just in time to save Kristoff, welcomes Anna and Elsa back, apologizes for his previous ignorance that led to Elsa's isolation 13 years ago, and assures them that according to the "love expert" magic, either of them could be a good match for Kristoff and they are free to choose for themselves. Two years later, of course, they have ended up in an inseparable threesome and do, in fact, undergo the complete troll wedding.


	5. Permutations 1-4: Reciprocated Loves

Four Rarely/Never-Seen Ideas for Reciprocated Elsanna Fics

_In all these scenarios Elsa and Anna are mutually attracted to each other. See other scenarios e.g. #5, #6 for cases where the attraction is one-sided_

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IDEA 1 - Elsa hides her inappropriate feelings towards Anna because Anna is already happy with Kristoff. In most of these fanfics, Anna finds out how Elsa feels before actually getting in too deep with Kristoff (and/or actually breaks up with Kristoff first). But how about a story where Elsa actually *succeeds* in hiding her feelings for such a long time (several years) that Anna and Kristoff get married, still oblivious to Elsa's feelings? Then something upsets the delicate balance, Elsa's secret gets revealed, and massive drama ensues.

Option 1a) Anna only sees Elsa as a sister, but out of devotion to her sister, allows Elsa to make love to her even though she does not feel the same way. (Perhaps Kristoff lets her. If she did it behind his back, more drama!)

Option 1b) Anna only sees Elsa as a sister, but offers to let Elsa make love to her anyways, but Elsa refuses because of her own selflessly putting Anna's feelings first.

Option 1c) Anna does reciprocate Elsa's feelings, but unfortunately she's already happily married to Kristoff! Same options: Kristoff approves of their affair/pushes them together, OR he doesn't and is angry when he finds out

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IDEA 2 - Anna is happy with Kristoff, and their relationship progresses, but this doesn't stop her from inappropriately desiring her sister. Anna feels irresistibly attracted to both of them at the same time and can't choose between them. Kristoff and/or Elsa find out and confront Anna, but she refuses to choose and wants them both to share her.

2a) Between Kristoff and Elsa, one of them is happy to share Anna, but the other is jealous and wants Anna all to themselves

2b) Both agree to share Anna and live happily ever after as a threesome

2c) Both are too jealous to share, Anna blows up at both of them and attempts to force them to share her (by refusing to be in a relationship with either of them until they agree, and/or by seducing both of them somehow)

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IDEA 3 - Elsa and Anna both inappropriately desire each other and discover it is reciprocated, BUT they agree that incest is wrong and they are royals and therefore can't act on their desires… and they ACTUALLY DON'T! Kristoff agrees to serve as a husband of convenience to fend off the constant suitors. Elsa and Anna spend a celibate lifetime dancing around each other as sisters and being nothing more.

3a) They slip up here and there, once in a while (maybe only when drunk), but then they go right back to "trying to do the right thing".

3b) They slip up here and there, with gradually increasing frequency, until at about age 40 they finally drop the pretense of resisting at all. A big public scandal results, but the sisters are into each other too deep to care about the consequences anymore.

3c) They actually succeed in resisting the lifelong temptations, grow old together as virgins, and on their deathbeds regret not having tried it just once to find out what it feels like… (optional: they promptly do so and die smiling)

* * *

IDEA #4 - Unlike in idea #3 (previous entry), Elsa and Anna are both afraid to tell each other about their feelings for each other. Pabbie worries that the royal sisters may be headed towards a lifetime of regrets...

a) Elsa and Anna both inappropriately desire each other but independently keep their feelings secret, never finding out about it until 40 years later when 58-year-old Anna is fatally injured in a freak accident. She confesses her un-sisterly feelings to Elsa with her dying words and too late, they both realize their feelings were reciprocated. A lifetime of regrets flash before their eyes, as they each remember all the little moments in which they independently did not take opportunities to declare their feelings because they feared hurting each other and/or the kingdom.

option 4b - Pabbie shows the above vision of the future to Elsa and/or Anna to persuade them to follow their hearts. His advice is bad as usual: the naive sisters are inevitably discovered and exposed by the various foreign spies in the royal court, a massive public reaction results, Arendelle goes down in flames, Elsa is assassinated by the bribed royal council (they know they can't confine her for a public show trial like they'd wish), and Anna is taken prisoner to be tried and executed in public. At her trial, 21-year-old Anna insists she doesn't regret anything and speaks so eloquently about true love that she single-handedly inspires a centuries-long LGBT-rights movement throughout all the kingdoms involved in the overthrow-Arendelle conspiracy. But the hateful crowd of that moment fails to appreciate the history they are making as Anna dies with a proud smile on her face.

option 4c - Pabbie shows Elsa and/or Anna the vision and urges her to follow her heart, but Elsa foresees the problems from option 4b that Pabbie didn't, and makes a plan with Anna. They declare themselves in public and, as expected, the officials turn against Elsa and try to kill her, but she escapes, in the process discovering that half her officials and guards have already been bribed by Weselton spies and another third by Southern Isles agents. Two rival armies descend on Arendelle each hoping to claim the credit for "liberating" the town from the "evil witch queen" while Elsa has escaped to join Anna in hiding and they debate whether they should save their ungrateful citizens or just let them suffer in the crossfire between Weselton and the Southern Isles.


	6. It was all a dream… Adgar's dream (pt 2)

_"It Was All A Dream" - Version 2: King Adgar's Nightmare_

The entire movie takes place in the dreams of Elsa's father, shortly after 8-year-old Elsa is isolated in her own room. Upon waking up the next morning, Elsa's father resolves to change the future so that his dream vision does not come true. He teaches Elsa to use her love, and within a week she is able to hide her powers and can start playing with Anna again. The young sisters are overjoyed to be together again and everything is awesome…

…until Elsa hits puberty and realizes that the only prince she wants to marry is her own sister. Naturally, Elsa's attempt to suppress her hormonal urges comes at the expense of her ability to suppress her magic. Elsa retreats to her room, worried about having another accidental outburst, and her concerned parents are horrified to learn the reason for her loss of control. Elsa's father is unpleasantly reminded of his dream from five years prior and his own heart breaks for both of his daughters, but this time, he has no choice but to keep them separated for their own safety. Elsa's romantic preference is unacceptable to their kingdom, and thus must be kept secret at all costs. Therefore, Elsa must now avoid being around Anna until she can control both her magic and her feelings at the same time. The castle gates are locked and staffing reduced, and 13-year-old Elsa tells Anna to go away for the first time in their lives.

10-year-old Anna is distraught and demands to know why Elsa refuses to be around her anymore. This turns out to be a convenient time to explain Elsa's powers to Anna (whose memory was modified at age 5 by the trolls) and Anna grudgingly accepts this excuse for keeping the door between herself and Elsa. Elsa plays her part, not telling Anna the other (and truer) reason for her isolation…

…until a few years later, when it's Anna's turn to undergo the girl-to-woman transformation and develop sexual feelings. Suddenly, Anna thinks she can understand what Elsa has been feeling – she puts two and two together, correctly guessing that Elsa must feel the same way she does. Anna excitedly runs to tell her parents (and Elsa) that she's figured out why Elsa's powers are out of control…

…thereby making their parents' worst fears come true. They realize both of their daughters have unhealthy feelings towards the other and these must be suppressed at any cost. Again the parents agonize over what to do. The King knows that love is the only way to thaw Elsa's powers, but that same love will be the downfall of their royal house if word ever gets out.

The King and Queen see only one way to protect their daughters. But they recoil in horror from the prospect of sacrificing one daughter to save the other.

Elsa's powers make her unmarriageable until she can find love, but where can she find love when no suitable man can safely approach her?

The answer stares the King in the face, but he does his best not to think about what his redheaded daughter so excitedly confessed to him… or the crushing disappointment in her expression upon learning that marriage is only allowed for a man and a woman… or her petulant wish to be a boy instead of a girl so as to get around that restriction (which forced him to uncomfortably explain the concept of incest to his naïve little girl…)

The kingdom must have heirs, and since Elsa is in no condition to mate with a prince (or any man, for that matter) their only hope rests upon Anna.

The King could easily arrange a marriage for Anna, but he hesitates – knowing that such an engagement would take away the only person who could be the lover Elsa needs, therefore dooming her to permanent imprisonment.

In desperation, he briefly considers allowing his daughters to become lovers for the sake of controlling Elsa's powers. But they would have to live forever in the shadows, fearing the discovery that would put an end to the kingdom. And it would hurt more in the end, as Anna must inevitably marry and Elsa will be even more devastated then, and her powers will again rage. Perhaps it would be best to split them now, before they have had a chance to bond any further.

With a heavy heart, the King orders both his daughters to bury their unspeakable feelings and tells them that Anna must be betrothed to a nice prince to set things right. 13-year-old Anna screams and rages at her parents for hours when they break the news to her. But 16-year-old Elsa's response is even more heartbreaking. Elsa is so despondent upon realizing she will never be able to leave her room again (and, more importantly, that she's going to lose Anna forever) that she barely manages to stop the growing icicles before they stab her parents. Fearing for their safety as well as resenting the sacrifice she must make for the kingdom, Elsa never lets her parents in again, despite their tearful pleas through her door. Anna's defiant persistence in whispering to Elsa under the door at night, when their parents are asleep, saves Elsa from suicide.

Two years later, during one of their several planned journeys to scout out potential husbands for Anna, the King and Queen die in a shipwreck, as in canon. Elsa refuses to attend the funeral and Anna, despite genuinely grieving, also finds herself guiltily suppressing her relief that her parents won't be forcing her to stay clear of Elsa and/or marry a foreign prince anytime soon.

With their parents no longer around to keep them apart and clamp down on their long-suppressed feelings, the two sisters quickly become more than sisters. The following three years are among the happiest of their life: the two of them alone in the castle, no husband to sneak around, no public image to maintain.

Three years later, Elsa's coronation goes without incident, and her powers are perfectly hidden once more with love. But it's not six months after that when the royal council starts to raise the question of marriage for their queen, who must produce an heir. (The councilors assume Elsa will take on the duty, as they are unaware of her powers.) The sisters proceed to play the dangerous game of stolen moments and hidden glances which their father had judged too risky to allow. He is no longer here to guide them, and two hormonal young women are left to make their own decisions.

Elsa and Anna spend the following three years entertaining foreign princes and pretending to be dutiful royals even while they gradually christen every room in the castle right under the royal council's noses. Together they select a suitor to be King of Arendelle – to whom they give their kingdom, but not their hearts, which have never been their own to give.

Five years later, the moment Elsa's father dreaded arrives. The sisters are caught in flagrante by Elsa's husband and barely escape with their lives, leaving behind their beloved three-year-old boy, Elsa's son, Anna's nephew. Even though they still have each other, the sisters are devastated as any parents would be to lose their children. Wanted dead or alive for their unspeakable royal sins, the sisters find refuge with the trolls Elsa remembered from her childhood, evading a kingdom-wide manhunt.

But there is a happy ending to the story: Twenty years later, having watched Arendelle from afar, anxiously clinging to scraps of news about their little prince and his later half-siblings (from Elsa's husband re-marrying), Elsa and Anna are taken by Grand Pabbie to see his latest human advice-seeker. It's Elsa's son, the prince of Arendelle – all grown up! After a tearful reunion, the prince agrees to visit as often as he can.

The sisters chose Elsa's suitor well: he was a good man who refused to punish an innocent boy for his mother's crimes. The prince goes on to become a king himself, succeeding his father (Elsa's ex-husband). With everyone who knew his mother and aunt well enough to see through potential disguises now deceased, the new king takes the opportunity to hire two new personal servants, whom he constantly calls for at all hours of the day with the smallest and most unreasonable requests. Strangely, the new servants don't seem to mind being apparently singled out and overworked. He also marries a pretty foreign princess whose true identity is known only to the trolls, Elsa, and Anna. The rumors about the new queen's striking resemblance to her new husband's recently deceased half-sister remain just that, rumors.


	7. Permutations 5: The Anna-Sided Elsanna

**_All the one-sided Elsanna fics have Elsa being the one in love, with Anna not loving her back. What if it was the other way around?_**

Prompt Idea #5 - Anna and Kristoff are happily married (because I think Anna learned her lesson and took it slow, she wouldn't have married him unless they had true love). However, Anna can't stop being attracted to her older sister, who seems completely oblivious. She takes her marriage vows seriously and keeps her feelings a secret, to protect both of the people she loves.

FIVE ways this could end...

5a) Elsa only loves Anna as a sister, and is horrified to find out Anna's un-sisterly feelings when Anna gets a little too drunk one night. Anna is equally horrified upon realizing she let out her secret. The revelation ruins the sisters' relationship making them both terribly awkward and wishing they could go back to being very close sisters again, but they can't. Finally, Elsa can't stand seeing her beloved sister unhappy, and makes an ice golem of herself for Anna to 'play' with. The problem is solved – until one day Kristoff walks in on Anna using the golem… (oh yeah, remember Kristoff's fascination with perfect flawless ice? Go figure)

5b) Elsa does reciprocate Anna's attraction, and unable to resist each other, they start a scorching affair. Somehow, against all odds, Anna manages to cheat on Kristoff with Elsa for decades without getting caught and continues to be a good wife to Kristoff and mother to their child (the heir to the throne). Kristoff is shocked but surprisingly not angry when he finds out he's been cuckolded, and even pleads on Anna's behalf when she is condemned to hell for her sinful life. Unfortunately, true love is not a defense according to God's word.

5c) Anna (despite trying not to) cheats on Kristoff with Elsa. Kristoff cheats on Anna with Sven. When they find out, none of them know whether to laugh, cry, or scream.

5d) Elsa doesn't want to admit her attraction to Anna, even after Anna confesses her side of it. So she pretends to feel only sisterly and makes Anna an ice golem of herself so that she doesn't have to dirty her hands. Secretly, Elsa also makes an ice golem of Anna for her own use. One day, the castle is being renovated and the sisters' bedrooms have to be temporarily cleared out. Both sisters stash their golems in the same dark storage room without noticing the one that's already there. The golems are accidentally activated, discover each other, and act exactly the way they were made to. Someone walks in on them. Drama happens.

5e) Elsa secretly reciprocates Anna's attraction but they never find out about each other until they die and go before Christ for their final judgment. They are condemned to hell despite not acting on their sinful attraction because "if you look at someone lustfully you have already committed adultery in your heart". Elsa and Anna stare at each other in disbelief, almost wishing they'd gone for it, since their lifetime of self-restraint didn't end up saving them from hell anyways!


	8. Permutations 6: The Elsa-Sided Elsanna

_This is the "classic" one-sided Elsanna scenario, that almost all existing one-sided Elsanna fics follow - e.g. Elsa loves Anna who doesn't love her back_

Prompt Idea #6

Elsa admits her inappropriate feelings to Anna. Anna doesn't feel the same way, but is happy that Elsa trusted her to handle the secret maturely instead of shutting her out like before. Elsa truly loves Anna so much that she just wants Anna to be happy regardless of her own feelings, and so Elsa agrees to continue being the affectionate older sister and restrains her deeper desire for Anna's sake.

Unfortunately, Elsa's self-restraint (aka suppressing her feelings) is precisely what causes her powers to flare up. Over time, as Anna's romantic relationships develop (with Kristoff or otherwise), Elsa's emotional-deprivation-fueled powers grow out of control and ultimately freeze over the entire kingdom, just like on Elsa's coronation day. Elsa seeks the trolls' advice and discovers (by somewhat more euphemistic wording) that the only way to save her kingdom from freezing to death is to ravish her own sister.

Suddenly, Elsa is forced to make a horrific choice between her duty as a big sister and her duty as a monarch. To be a responsible queen, Elsa must get her magic under control and save her people, no matter the personal cost to herself. Were it only her own life at stake, she would give it without a second thought. But how can she inflict such a thing on her beloved sister whom she has sworn to protect all her life?

Needless to say, Elsa is now fully convinced that she is a monster after all.

Option 6a – Unable to stomach either option, Elsa takes the only other way out by committing suicide. But Anna was never trained in statecraft and is further unfit to rule due to grieving for her sister. Arendelle falls, thousands of people die.

Option 6b – Elsa decides that her subjects' needs come first, and reluctantly asks her sister to do what princesses do – sacrifice their own feelings for the good of the kingdom. Many generations later, newly declassified documents reveal, for the first time, the story of Princess Anna's martyrdom – the girl who let herself be defiled by her evil witch sister to save thousands of her people from freezing to death.

Option 6c – Elsa loves her sister so much that she'll do anything to make Anna happy, up to and including the destruction of an entire kingdom. Anna objects, feeling guilty that Elsa is sacrificing thousands of people's livelihoods just for her, but Elsa and Kristoff eventually convince Anna that it's right for her to follow her heart and not do something she finds squicky for anyone else's sake. Many generations later, public opinion is extremely divided: Did Anna do the right thing? Did Elsa do the right thing? Historians disagree on who is to blame for the destruction of a once-vibrant port city.

Option 6d – Anna decides to be a good princess and endure the squick, both to save the kingdom and because making Elsa happy is a priceless goal in itself even if the kingdom's fate hadn't been at stake. Unfortunately, she fails on both counts because even though she's trying hard to act as a lover rather than a sister, Elsa can still feel Anna's lack of passion with her, and the true love that is required to thaw Elsa's powers simply doesn't exist because Anna's heart belongs to someone else (Kristoff perhaps) and just isn't available for Elsa to take. As a result, Arendelle is doomed despite their best efforts.

_(I've seen other "one-sided Elsanna" stories out there… but so far none of them have ever taken the very pessimistic path above. There is a solution, though:_

Option 6e** \- **A Comprehensive Solution: The One-Sided Elsanna Problem

_Note: This solution only works if Anna's true love is actually Kristoff, or someone equally tolerant. If Anna's true love is a jealous prince, I posit that no happy ending is possible._

_Other solutions may be possible based on varying plausible interpretations of the characters from the movie. This is only one possible solution._

Recall Elsa's dilemma: Elsa's powers have gone out of control and frozen Arendelle again because Elsa has been "conceal-don't-feel"-ing her unholy love for Anna, who doesn't love her back the way Elsa needs her to. Since Elsa's powers are flaring due to her jealousy and being denied her true love, the trolls think Elsa can thaw the kingdom by making love to her sister. However, Anna's heart already belongs to Kristoff, so Elsa refuses to force herself on Anna under any circumstance.

Elsa contemplates suicide, but can't bring herself to go through with it when she realizes how much it would hurt Anna. Then she considers running away, hoping that if she's far away from the kingdom it won't be affected by her powers, but she remembers that no one else is qualified to run the kingdom and everything will collapse if she leaves. But that's not what stops Elsa from running away – she cares more about her sister than the kingdom. What does stop her is the knowledge that Anna will almost certainly chase after her and freeze to death in the process.

_(How does Elsa know this? One possibility is that she has watched Anna secretly over the years and simply knows her very well. The other possibility is that Anna screamed the above information in Elsa's face after fortuitously walking in on Elsa holding a sharp icicle to her wrist. Either way, once Elsa knows Anna's feelings on the subject, she won't dare think about escaping ever again.)_

All Elsa wants is to leave Anna free to be happy with Kristoff, but it seems that's the one thing she will never be able to do.

Out of ideas, and with Anna banging on her door, Elsa gives in and agrees to tell Anna what's bothering her. But Elsa can't talk to them face-to-face anymore because her powers are flaring out of control. Later that day, Anna and Kristoff find themselves talking through a thick barrier of clear ice that splits Elsa's room right down the middle. Elsa sits on her bed facing them from inside the sealed half of her room, her old blue gloves solidly encased in ice.

Anna is used to talking through a barrier, and the current setup is a vast improvement over her childhood memories of crying against Elsa's wooden door. Elsa explains her problem, and quickly gets into an argument with Anna. Both sisters insist on sacrificing their own happiness for the other, but neither can be happy accepting the other's sacrifice. Finally, Elsa wins the argument by pointing out that Kristoff, their mutual friend, will be happier if Anna goes with him. Better for just Elsa and Anna to be miserable than all three of them together. Anna and Kristoff reluctantly agree to remain a couple as their hearts dictate.

Only after settling Anna's problem does Elsa begin to consider the kingdom's survival. The immediate concern is that Elsa's eternal winter, during summertime, is preventing Arendelle's crops from growing. The farmers have only just been compensated for the last freeze, and famine is a distinct possibility now that there will be yet another year without harvest.

Together, the three royals come up with an elaborate workaround. To convince the population to endure the hard times ahead, Elsa claims that her spies have reported an impending invasion by a Weselton-led alliance and she changed the weather to pre-emptively deter the invaders. However, as a side effect of her large outburst of power, she will need to be temporarily confined to her room again. Just as she did in the three years before her coronation, Elsa rules the kingdom using slips of paper under her door. The difference this time is that nowadays she seems to favor Anna and Kristoff as her primary messengers to the royal council. Anna makes a special effort to act royal with the councilors for the sake of making her sister proud, and their conversation through the door makes Elsa's isolation far more bearable than before. The royal councilors are impressed at the change in their once flighty princess.

Ironically, Weselton's spies have indeed infiltrated the royal palace, and their reports of Arendelle's difficulties are precisely what persuade the Duke not to move against Arendelle. He calculates that Elsa will be occupied with her problems and no longer has tradeable goods worth invading for anyways, and thus Weselton needs not intervene to eliminate the threat of the witch queen. Elsa never learns that the cover story she thought she was making up is actually surprisingly close to the truth.

Meanwhile, with Arendelle's natural fjord harbor solidly iced over, the new "coastline" is effectively several miles away from the docks, so massive sled relays are organized to bring supplies from ships dropping anchor just beyond the ice. The town's main source of food becomes fishing, since it's too cold to farm. Starving wolf packs emerging from the frozen forests become an additional source of meat. Even so, many families are reduced to one or two meals per day; Elsa orders the same deprivation for everyone in the royal household as a gesture of solidarity with her people.

But all this isn't quite enough to fully support Arendelle; with their farms frozen and their coal mines inaccessible due to snow, they no longer have enough trade goods to buy all the other things they need on the international market. Desperate for money, Elsa prepares to become the monster she always feared herself to be – by hiring herself out as a mercenary, since her powers can easily defeat any army. But Anna finally stops her. For months Anna has watched Elsa sacrifice her feelings in an attempt to be a good older sister, and now it's the younger sister who can't take it anymore.

Anna never thought she would be willing to do what it takes to help Elsa control her powers. But months of watching her sister and her subjects suffer through the eternal winter have changed her mind; the guilt of being the only person getting everything she wants (both romantically and sisterly) has accumulated, and she resolves that it is her turn to be miserable.

Anna, Kristoff, and Sven devise a new scheme to keep Arendelle alive. As long as the ground can be thawed for eight months of the year, Arendelle will produce enough crops to regain most of its former commerce. They've determined that when Elsa loses control of her powers, the winter extends up to 20 miles in all directions, depending on terrain. So, the solution is simple: Elsa will spend each spring and summer on a ship anchored 20 miles away from the coastline. During the crucial autumn harvest season, Anna will take a sled from the coast over to Elsa's ship, and become her lover for a long enough time to let Elsa thaw everything out and sail the ship home. Elsa will spend the winter season at home making ice sculptures and ice, which are Arendelle's other major exports aside from farm food and coal. Then, before spring is normally supposed to start, Elsa and Anna will sail away to the safe distance where Elsa can let out her powers again, and Anna will return by sled. The spring thaw will then occur as normal.

Anna slips the proposal under Elsa's door, but Elsa violently refuses. Elsa hasn't let anyone into her room since the day they last talked about Elsa's little problem, and Anna and Kristoff spend a winter pleading with Elsa through her door. The "regular" winter season passes by, and they realize that if they can't get Elsa to thaw the kingdom by springtime, spring will never arrive, and the farmers won't be able to plant their crops, and the kingdom really will starve if this keeps up.

So one night in March, with some mechanical help from Kristoff and a few loyal servants, Anna sneaks down a rope from the roof and into Elsa's window. In a spectacular feat of acting, Anna seduces her half-asleep sister by imagining Kristoff in place of Elsa. Elsa thought it was a dream, and is horrified to wake up next to Anna the next morning. But Anna heroically repeats her lover-act convincingly enough to fulfill her sister's fantasy – this time in the light of day. Princess Anna of Arendelle, once the spare of the kingdom, has become its savior. Better late than never, the silly rambunctious girl has grown up to become a true princess: knowledgeable in matters of state, skilled at hiding her emotions and following her head at the expense of her heart.

After consummating their heinous sin, the sisters happily go to breakfast where Kristoff barges in excitedly with the good news. It worked! Background music in the movie version, inaudible to our characters, begins a rousing reprise with the line "The sun shines bright on the valley today" as the external visuals show cracks forming in the harbor ice under a clear blue sky.

_The sun shines bright on the valley today  
__Not a snowflake to be seen  
__A kingdom of sunshine and flowers  
__And it looks like I'm the queen…*_

_[*the rest of this song, along with a dirtier version of Anna's "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" are posted on my profile separately under "Let It Go: The Secret Subversive Version"]_

Back in the palace dining room, for a moment Elsa feels guilty at the sight of Kristoff, remembering what she has just taken from him, but Kristoff reassures her (mostly truthfully) that he secretly always knew he would come second to her in Anna's heart, and he's okay with that. (He tactfully doesn't ask to share Anna just yet; Elsa would certainly agree, but they don't want to risk her happy mood until she's safely tucked away at sea.) As an elated Elsa basks in her finally fulfilled (and sick, twisted, and wrong) love, the harbor thaws and the streets are wet with melting snow and ice. Spring has arrived. Cheering and celebration can be heard throughout the streets, as the people look forward to days of plenty once again.

Anna persuades Elsa to take a "honeymoon" in their cousin's kingdom of Corona, leaving Kristoff in charge at Arendelle. "Come on, just one week!" she pleads in her little-sister voice – but in her head, Anna is promising herself that this will be the last lie she ever tells her sister. The rest of the royal council is told that the sisters are merely taking a one-week "vacation" because Elsa needs to recharge her powers after the massive thaw. Corona is to the south of Arendelle, but Anna has secretly told the handpicked trusted crew to sail the ship north, to a designated spot at sea, 20 miles northwest of Arendelle – persuading them that she has a secret surprise planned for her older sister which will be waiting for them on another ship. As their ship exits the fjord, Anna keeps Elsa distracted below deck in their quarters.

Once they arrive at their destination, Anna admits her deception. Elsa instantly remembers the scheme Anna had proposed to her over the winter, realizing that she has been tricked into it after previously refusing to go along with it. Elsa's fury and grief at being betrayed by the only person she has left in the world is so terrible, that Anna, for the first time ever in her life, feels fear in her sister's presence. Within minutes, dense flurries of snow are flying all around them and ice is spreading along the sea surface, encrusting the ship in its place.

But this time around Anna knows her sister much better than during the last great freeze, and now Anna has some idea of what she must be thinking. All of Elsa's anger at Anna for her scheming is insignificant next to the anger Elsa feels towards herself, for having fallen for it, for failing to protect Anna from her monstrous desires. The memories of just the recent few nights flash through Elsa's mind, each incredibly pleasurable violation of her sister now serving to condemn herself further. Elsa's disgust with herself matches the intensity of her love for Anna. Kristoff, Olaf, Arendelle, all of Elsa's royal duties lie forgotten in the back of her mind. Her only clear thought is that she does not deserve to live, indeed never did. In the swirling storm of her emotions, matched by the blizzard around her, she is barely able to control her powers enough to form a sharp icicle in her hand. She raises the icicle like a dagger and…

Elsa knows exactly what's happening before she even hits the icy deck of the ship, and yet again she hates herself for her failure – this time, for failing her last chance at escaping her curse. Elsa was so distraught that she didn't even notice Anna still standing there watching her amid the snow flurries. Had she been thinking more clearly, she would have put up an ice barrier.

But she didn't. And now Elsa lies spread-eagled on the deck with Anna pinning her wrists to either side in a death grip, the icicle just beyond her reach. Anna expected more of a struggle, but Elsa lies still beneath her, seeming resigned to her fate.

In her most reasonable queen voice, Elsa pleads with Anna to just let her die. Anna refuses. She still needs her sister, even if Arendelle no longer does. Elsa tries to scare Anna away and threatens to separate her from Kristoff forever. But Anna truthfully answers that Kristoff was right about being second in her heart. Anna feels obligated to her sister in a way that she doesn't to her husband. Kristoff may be the one who makes her heart race and palms sweat, and the one whose children she wants to bear, but Elsa is the one who needs her more, and who has suffered more on her account. Anna considers both of them her family, and would like to keep them both in her life in some way. But if her sister must go a lifetime without true love, then she will do the same, in solidarity with her sister.

In their scheming over the winter, Anna and Kristoff had seen this possibility coming, especially after Elsa's initial reaction to their idea. And so they are brilliantly prepared; Elsa can't help being impressed when Anna reveals what's in the ship's hold. The horses and sleds that Anna previously claimed were for her and Elsa to use in Corona are, in fact, meant to send the loyal crew of their ship back to Arendelle, across the patch of sea that Elsa's powers have frozen over. The provisions that would supply a full crew for two months are actually meant to last Elsa and Anna for up to two full years. And a full third of the ship's stores are not the usual sailor's rations but instead chocolate – in every form that was available in Arendelle. There is just one small flaw that Anna couldn't fix in her plan. She was counting on fishing through the ice as part of their diet – but despite her secret efforts to learn, she is still terrible at cooking.

Thus, Arendelle returns to normal with Prince Kristoff increasingly treated as the real ruler, while Elsa and Anna spend the entire spring and summer living on the ship that has effectively become their mansion on a floating ice continent. Out on the sea, Elsa is free to blast huge volumes of ice in all directions whenever she needs to – a need which arises quite frequently, in fact every time Anna looks a little too appealing. Kristoff, according to the pre-arranged plan, sends Olaf to join them after the ship's crew returns without Anna. Anna treasures the fleeting moments in which Elsa manages to forget her troubles and enjoy a sisterly moment. Elsa has refused to express any of her sexual longings since their last dramatic confrontation, which may be just as well; Anna has been away from Kristoff long enough, and misses him enough, that she isn't sure if she can pull off the lover act again without accidentally moaning his name (which would be sure to ruin the mood for Elsa). Even so, Anna spends the entire summer refusing Elsa's suggestion of going home to see Kristoff. Anna insists on waiting until the autumn harvest ends and winter begins, when the two of them will be able to return together, Elsa's powers no longer out of place for the season.

The first winter is the hardest on Elsa. The bit of joy she felt upon seeing her home again is almost entirely squashed by her jealousy when she watches Anna fly into Kristoff's arms with barely restrained passion. It still stings Elsa that she can't be Kristoff in times like this, and she still feels a lingering guilt that Anna is choosing her over Kristoff for eight months of the year when she can't give Anna what Kristoff gives her. But Elsa knows she's accepted this compromise for Anna's sake, and hopes that perhaps one day she will finally be content with this life.

Now it's time for Elsa to finally discharge her royal responsibilities. The crowd cheers as she announces her abdication and crowns Kristoff and Anna as the new monarchs of Arendelle. Kristoff gives Elsa his own former title that she created for him – Royal Ice Master and Deliverer – though he reassures the murmuring crowd that the "delivery" part of her job will be taken over by subordinates; Elsa will only be appearing in person during the winter months.

All is now right in Arendelle. The kingdom prospers under King Kristoff's reign, greatly aided by now-Princess Elsa's ability to create ice full time without having royal duties. Queen Anna continues to split her time each year – eight months with her Royal Ice Master on the royal boat and four months at home with the King. Elsa throws herself into ice sculpting, sending her sculptures 20 miles across the ice to Arendelle's harbor on the backs of a constant stream of snow monsters. Within a couple years, Elsa has almost single-handedly made Arendelle enough money to fully compensate all the farmers from her last summer freeze.

But one last challenge awaits. Now that Arendelle has recovered, it is once again prosperous enough to be worth conquering. The Weselton spies that were lying dormant throughout Arendelle's government resume their work. Castle guards and servants are bribed into the intrigue one by one. Unholy rumors begin to spread across the kingdom, pointed questions about why the Queen spends twice as much time with the snow witch as she does with her King. Perhaps Elsa's abdication was a ruse, they say; maybe she has both royals under magical compulsion, and she has distanced herself only to conceal her perversions with her own sister.

In a reversal of previous ironies, the Weselton spies now believe they are spreading vicious slander, never realizing how much Elsa wished for their most salacious accusations to be true.

One spring day, Weselton's agents launch their coup. Anna and Elsa have just returned to sea from their winter at home when Sven knocks on their ship frantically. The sisters don't need to understand reindeer language to realize that something must have happened to Kristoff.

The sisters rush back to find Weselton's flag flying over the castle and Kristoff being held for ransom by the Duke. But the Royal Ice Mistress has lost none of her old touch. Exploiting the Duke's ideological belief that she is evil, Elsa convinces the Duke that she will destroy his entire nation unless her own is returned. The Weseltonians soon retreat, Arendelle suffering only mild losses due to Elsa's short return forcing them to replant all their just-planted crops from scratch.

In some other year, after returning to their boat/island one spring, Anna discovers that she's pregnant. The child, heir to Arendelle, is born at home the following winter, and now the living arrangements become a more complicated problem. Elsa has never regained control of her powers and it is clear that she never will, at least not until she reaches menopause and stops wanting Anna that way. There are still many years remaining before Elsa can safely go anywhere near civilization (except in wintertime). After much deliberation and consulting the childcare experts, they ultimately decide to leave the child with Anna and Elsa for the first few years, then at home in the castle once the child is old enough for the royal tutors. The entire family can still be together in the winter, so at least both Anna and Kristoff will be able to see their child for some time each year. As the years go by, Anna and Kristoff have other children, but somehow, they figure out how to make it work….

…And so goes the unlikeliest, craziest, yet sanest happily-ever-after in the history of Disney.


	9. 8 years old again: Elsa's Second Chance

_What if Elsa got a second chance at those 13 lonely years? Could she have saved Anna from those terrible years apart? (Hint: The answer is NO.)_

Some magic spell transports Elsa's 21-year-old consciousness back in time to her 8-year-old self on the morning of the accident. Realizing she has a chance to change history, she aims her final ice blast lower and avoids hurting 5-year-old Anna. Unfortunately, the altered timeline is ultimately worse than the original - Kristoff never gets adopted by the trolls, the public revolts against Elsa's "sorcery" and Anna gets killed/kidnapped, various other bad things happen due to butterfly effect, etc - and finally Elsa realizes the original timeline was better and escapes to the trolls in her 12-year-old body to get the timeline fixed.

OR

Some magic spell transports 21yo Elsa back in time to 8 years old the day *after* the accident, and she's been isolated in her room. But this time she knows love is the secret and gains full control of her ice within a few days, allowing her to see Anna again. She's supposed to still hide her powers from Anna and the rest of the world, though eventually Anna realizes Elsa's body temperature is always cold and her parents allow Elsa to let Anna back in on the secret (which is otherwise known only to Elsa's parents, Kai, Gerda, and a select few other servants).

Then comes the invitation to Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding in Corona - the very event that Elsa's parents originally died en route to. Elsa begs her parents not to go, but can't persuade them, so she asks to go with them in hopes of saving them from the storm. Anna comes too, of course. As the storm waves threaten to capsize them, Elsa creates a giant ice sheet below the ship - they are still unable to save the ship and are ultimately stuck on the floating ice, but all the crew are saved.

Unfortunately, Elsa's powers are now revealed, since they have no choice but to proceed on to Corona in a ship made of ice, the original one having broken to pieces in the storm. Arendelle's enemies promptly exploit the "sorcery" revelations and the royal family's absence, and suddenly there are plots and intrigues sprouting all over, including assassins sent to keep Elsa's family from returning. An alliance of ultra-conservative kingdoms forms to keep Elsa from inheriting the throne at any cost and Elsa's father is threatened with war. He is willing to fight for his daughter's rights, but she cannot bear to have so much destruction caused in her name. Elsa agrees to be exiled from Arendelle to prevent a huge regional war. But Anna cannot go with her now, for she must now rule the kingdom. Kristoff is nowhere to be found; Anna will be forced to marry someone who is not so accepting of her romantic relationship with Elsa.

Elsa finds that she managed to save her parents' lives and Anna's childhood… at the cost of Anna's future happiness with her.

This thought makes Elsa hesitate to go through with her exile. She weighs her head against her heart; thousands of lives against Anna's feelings; she cannot live with herself either way.

But she knows of a third way, one that is guaranteed to secure both in the end. In this alternate timeline, Elsa alone knows of the original timeline from which she came. And that is where she must go.


	10. Lost Plot Bunnies, free to a good home

These little plot bunnies need feeding, but I haven't got the time for them! Help!

* * *

The Origin of the "Snow Queen" Fairytale:

Prince Hans IS the future Hans Christian Andersen of Disneyverse. His brothers disowned him for jeopardizing the Isles' longtime alliance with Arendelle, so Hans was forced to make a living on his own, doing what he does best - making up stories. He wrote "The Snow Queen" as a caricature of Elsa because, being a sociopath, he blames everyone but himself for his misfortunes. Ironically, his talent for fiction gains him more fame than ruling a minor city-state ever could have.

* * *

What If:

AU which is identical to canon except it turns out the initial report of the parents dying in a shipwreck are mistaken and the parents do make it to Corona and back, merely delayed a few days. Upon their return they get a hug from Anna (sobbing in relief) at the docks and then from Elsa in her room, as she's so relieved she momentarily forgets about her fear of touching them physically. They give in to Elsa's fears and promise to never take another sea voyage again.

* * *

What If:

AU which is identical to canon, except Anna went with their parents and also died in the shipwreck, leaving Elsa with no one except Kai and Gerda to rely on. She manages to hide her ice powers during her coronation and becomes an extremely reclusive queen, except for the many suitors pursuing her.

* * *

What If:

AU which is identical to canon except the parents don't die and instead of Elsa's coronation, they just have her 21st birthday/coming-of-age celebration to introduce her to the world (and officially make her available for courting/marriage offers). With Elsa's parents helping to reassure her and keeping Anna off her back as needed, Elsa manages to avoid any magic outbursts. Suitors including Hans seek her hand, and while Hans secretly feels more attracted to Anna, he sacrifices potential love in the pursuit of potential power and primarily pursues Elsa (though to be polite he indicates being open to meeting/courting either sister, subject to parents' approval).

The King and Queen of Arendelle now start handling suitors for both of their daughters. But meanwhile, both sisters have fallen hard for each other – after not being allowed to spend time with each other for 13 years, all it took was a few words and a night of staring across the ballroom – and both Anna and Elsa separately confess their new feelings to their parents. The King and Queen dare not let either of them know the other's feelings and order them to not tell each other, even though Elsa's control of her powers has regressed horribly due to her new (she thinks unrequited) love.

But Anna never gives up trying to reach Elsa "just as a sister" and after much fruitless guessing, finally jumps to the conclusion that Elsa must be avoiding her due to disgust at her inappropriate feelings. So she tries to persuade Elsa that she will control her feelings and they can pretend she doesn't have them – and Elsa is shocked because she never knew Anna felt the same way!

* * *

What If:

AU which starts out identical to canon except with no magic, so Elsa never freezes Anna's head and the sisters remain close all the way through to adulthood. Their relationship is normal until their parents die in a shipwreck, but over the following three years their grieving brings them unnaturally close together, and without their parents to talk to about their feelings, they soon stop using one of the two beds in their shared room.

* * *

Pocket Elsa scenarios:

Tiny/Pocket Elsa due to her accidentally being shrunk by magic, but still has her powers. She hides in her room claiming to be sick. Anna has a field day with her upon finding her.

Some time later Anna gets accidentally shrunk and Elsa gets her revenge.

Or: Pocket Elsa hides in Anna's hair, dyed white, and Anna pretends to be Elsa (with Elsa whispering guidance into her ear) until the spell wears off

Another idea: Pocket Elsa with full-sized ice powers would be pretty useful because she could sneak around and take an enemy by surprise with a big blast of powers.

* * *

One more "it was all a dream" scenario:

The entire movie is just Anna's dream shortly before Elsa's coronation, after Anna's one final attempt to talk to Elsa was refused.

* * *

Another idea based on "sharing a body":

The two sisters accidentally get merged into a single "Elsanna" entity, who has Elsa's powers and Anna's emotional volatility, wreaking havoc; the blended girl fears losing her new identity and doesn't want to separate, and Kristoff has to talk her into it (but makes Kristoff promise to love Elsa too)

* * *

A cute little side effect of Anna being frozen:

What if it gave Anna the ability to sense Elsa's emotional state at all times. Thus, when Elsa starts falling in romantic love with Anna and withdraws due to fear, Anna knows exactly what's going on despite Elsa's best efforts to hide her emotions.

* * *

Alternative ending/addition for the "Elsa's parents are incestuous siblings" idea:

Elsa's parents (who are thus also Elsa's aunt/uncle) did not take their secret to the grave but instead left it in a sealed letter for Elsa to find after becoming queen. Elsa and Anna decide that in order to eliminate the possibility of their children taking after them (the way they themselves unknowingly took after their parents), they will purposely have only one child. Unfortunately for them, Anna gives birth to fraternal twins, who have yet again inherited the genetic mutation that began with Elsa's parents. The cycle of inappropriate too-true love continues…

(In this scenario the twins could be biologically Anna and Kristoff's children, or Elsa accidentally impregnating Anna with magic, the latter case leads 100% to this scenario while the former depends on whether the mutation is dominant/recessive, etc, but that's all details)


	11. Permutations 7: not yet legal

_The Disney script says Anna is 18 and Elsa 21. However, in the movie, Anna and Elsa clearly act much younger and less mature than being adults - on one hand, this could be due to their isolation, but on the other hand, __if Elsa was 15 when her parents died then it's easier to explain the 3-year wait until her coronation. (Norway's age of majority is 18.) Also, if Anna was 15 years old it would explain a lot of her impulsive and reckless behavior (teenage hormones). So… **what if Anna and Elsa had been 1-3 years younger during the movie?**  
_

So here's Prompt Idea #7:

AU in which Anna and Elsa are 1-3 years younger at the time of Elsa's coronation (still 3 years between parents' death and coronation). Elsa would normally refuse Anna's romantic advances for reasons we already know, but now she has one additional reason - Anna isn't old enough! ("you don't know what you're doing!")

This opens up possible story lines with Anna (age 15-17, post-coronation) trying to persuade Elsa that she is mature enough to make such a decision (which she probably isn't, unless [or especially if!] she spends a lot of time with Kristoff and the trolls), such as:

option 7a - Anna agrees to wait until she's 18 before deciding anything, outgrows her teenaged fantasies and achieves a normal and happy marriage, much to Elsa's relief (here, Elsa is the closest to a mother figure since their parents died 3 years before Elsa's coronation)

option 7b - Anna agrees to wait until she's 18 before deciding anything, outgrows her teenaged fantasies and achieves a normal and happy marriage, much to Elsa's disappointment because Elsa now has to hide her un-sisterly feelings forever.

option 7c - Anna is indeed not mature yet, falls for a series of other men/women, gets in trouble, breaks Elsa's heart, and learns her lessons the hard way as she grows up. Eventually, an older and wiser Anna finally figures out what she really wants out of life and settles down with a nice prince/commoner/whatever (possibly Kristoff)

option 7d - Same as option 7c, except that after all her hard-earned life experience and many breakups, Anna decides that Elsa really is the one for her after all - much to Elsa's consternation, because Elsa doesn't feel the same attraction and was hoping Anna would give up her teenage fantasy when she grew up!

option 7e - same as option 7d, except that Elsa does reciprocate the attraction and the two sisters live happily ever after (or, until they are exposed and executed for their perversions)

option 7f - Being both a teenager and a naturally headstrong personality, Anna refuses to listen to Elsa's age-appropriate wisdom. They become involved before Anna is 18 because Elsa, despite her best efforts, can't push her away and can't resist her either. There are lots of potential bad repercussions here and only one possible happy ending. (bad things: Anna grows up and realizes this isn't what she wants for the rest of her life, Anna acts immaturely and gets them exposed, etc)

option 7g - runs concurrently with all the above options - Elsa goes up the mountain to personally yell at Pabbie and/or Kristoff for corrupting Anna with their unconventional troll morality about "true love"


	12. Permutations 8: Anna realizes too late--

_Anna realizes her love too late and Elsa's already married. (Permutation Prompt #8)_

Elsa hides her inappropriate love for Anna and goes through with marrying a nice foreign prince, who becomes King. Among royalty, marrying for love is unheard of, so the new King doesn't bat an eye at Elsa's lack of passion in the bedroom (though he is genuinely taken with her beauty and makes an effort to treat her well and gain her affections for real). However, at this inopportune time, Anna finally sorts out her feelings and realizes that Elsa is her one true love.

Option 8A – Anna has grown up and realizes that she needs to be responsible and sacrifice her heart to protect her kingdom, just like Elsa did every day for 13 years. A lifetime of tortured longing and stolen glances follows. The good King suspects something untoward between his wife and sister-in-law, but is reassured after his men spy on the royal sisters and see that they never act sexually towards each other.

Option 8B – Anna takes her turn trying the "conceal-don't-feel" routine, but she's a lot worse at it than Elsa, and fails miserably. Elsa's husband (the King) catches them in the act, and Anna promptly tries to take responsibility to protect Elsa. The King may or may not see through it, but in either case, he banishes Anna from the castle. Much to his anger and jealousy, he sees that Elsa becomes depressed and loses her will to live after Anna is taken away. At first, he realizes Elsa will do anything he wants if he threatens to have Anna killed, but after months of abuse, he finally tires of her mindless compliance and gives up on interacting with her entirely. Kristoff takes the broken queen to his home, where he's been taking care of Anna during her depression, and they slowly heal together. The King takes another wife to obtain an heir, and no one objects, until a year later when Princess Rapunzel of Corona comes to visit her cousins and learns what has happened. She offers to get back at the King by contesting his newborn son's succession, but her cousins prefer to live quietly in peace, and so the dynasty of Elsa's ancestors ends with her. Unfortunately, three generations later, one of Rapunzel's over-ambitious descendants, locked out of the inheritance of Corona, tries to assert his family's claim to Arendelle, and a great war follows.

Option 8C – Anna and Elsa hide their feelings (each unaware of the other) and everything seems fine, until the King decides to arrange for Anna to marry another foreign prince to gain an important allied kingdom. Suddenly, Elsa's jealousy is triggered, hard. But since she can't tell her husband why she's so opposed to her sister getting married, he refuses to cancel the engagement. Elsa vacillates fearfully for weeks as the day for Anna's departure approaches. Anna demands to know what's bothering her sister, but Elsa is afraid that a confession will push Anna away permanently and/or cause Anna to break off the engagement with severe diplomatic consequences.

Variation 8C-1 – Elsa confesses, and Anna wants to call off the marriage, but eventually accepts Elsa's pleading to go. A few years later, Elsa and her husband receive a letter from the other king reporting Anna's disappearance and likely tragic death in a hunting expedition. Elsa mourns for months until a suspiciously familiar young woman shows up at Arendelle Castle to apply for a servant job…

Variation 8C-2 – Elsa says nothing, once again breaking her sister's heart. Years pass before they are able to see each other again, but time has not diminished the spark between them. They miss each other so much that even without words, Anna now knows exactly what Elsa didn't want to tell her on the day they last parted. A few glances across the ballroom and they can't stop themselves from consummating their long-denied love in the cloakroom, Elsa futilely repeating out loud that they need to stop while her body cooperates with Anna's advances in spite of her words. Unfortunately, by now Anna has become a mother and cannot so easily abandon her child back at her new home. So they carry on their affair across the years, spending rare and passionate moments around corners and behind curtains at various kingdoms' celebrations. Many years later, Elsa and Anna find that their children seem romantically interested in each other, which is a perfect excuse for them to see each other more frequently… what will they do?

Option 8D – Elsa was controlling her powers just fine as long as she believed Anna didn't love her back the same way. That control disappears once Anna confesses, and suddenly the whole kingdom is back in eternal winter. The solution is obvious, but who dares to tell the King? So the sisters are forced to conceal their adulterous method of thawing the kingdom. They manage to keep Elsa's powers under control long enough for Elsa to provide her husband an heir (which means the royal council now thinks she is now dispensable). Some time later they are caught in their affair, and are happy to be banished from the kingdom, living happily ever after in Elsa's castle on the mountain.


	13. Permutations 9: Body Switched!

**_What if Elsa and Anna switched bodies?_**

Permutation Prompts: Idea #9

Accidental magical spell causes Anna and Elsa to switch bodies. For whatever reason, the spell can't be reversed for at least a few weeks.

The two sisters now must figure out how to act like each other to keep from being discovered.

This story could include any combination of the below features/options:

9A – Elsa's powers are transferred along with her spirit into Anna's body, so now she can't afford to show any of her powers at all… while Anna now looks like Elsa and has to avoid any situation where people might ask her to use the ice powers because she hasn't got any

9B – Elsa's powers stay in her body, which is now owned by Anna, who suddenly has to keep control of her emotions – meanwhile Elsa adjusts to not having her magic anymore… but eventually starts to like the emotional freedom that comes with it, and is sad when they have to switch back! (Likewise Anna is sad to give up her new powers once she's finally learned to keep them from bursting out all the time)

9C – Each sister finds herself inappropriately aroused by her new body (formerly her sister's). They don't work up the courage to tell each other about it until after they've returned to their original bodies, but after they switch back, they see each other in a whole new light…

9D – Same as 9C except they do tell each other about their new attractions, then try acting on them (while still in each other's bodies), then do it again after returning to their own bodies to compare the experiences.

9E – Anna enjoys her new ice powers so much (and Elsa enjoys being free of them), that they decide not to switch back at all – Anna lives the rest of her life as "Elsa" working wonders with ice, while "Anna" becomes dramatically more dignified and responsible, taking on an increasing share of the royal duties (and freeing "Elsa" to spend more time playing with her magic).

9F – The sisters do switch back, but having come to enjoy each other's lives, they decide that every year they will purposely switch bodies again just for fun.

9G – For whatever reason, the spell can't be reversed even after they've gotten bored of the switch and both want their own bodies (and lives) back. So, the sisters decide to impersonate each other as best they can despite being in the wrong body. Elsa (in Anna's body) dyes her red hair white and wears high heels, while Anna uses red hair dye and tries to slouch just a bit. [This option works best if Elsa's powers transferred over to Anna's body along with her spirit as in 9A above]

9H – The body-switch spell can only be broken by an act of true love. Elsa has been resisting Anna because of the incest issue but reluctantly lets Anna kiss her in order to get their lives back. Then it turns out the kiss isn't enough – the love needs to be consummated to break the spell! Elsa puts her foot down and refuses to go any further, even when Anna threatens to do ridiculous and un-queenly things in public (in Elsa's body). Finally Anna puts on her pouting face, and Elsa breaks down in fits at the hilarious sight of her own face wearing Anna's expression. They do the deed and wake up the next morning restored to their own selves. Of course Elsa tries to pass it off as a one-time incident and go back to being sisterly, but Anna doesn't let her.

9I – Elsa, in Anna's body, dealing with Kristoff's advances (supposing they're married/sexually active at the time of the switch)

9J – What if the switch happens *before* the events of the movie, rather than after? Elsa has always pushed Anna away, but when she wakes up as Anna and realizes Anna must be trapped in her room with her ice powers, they have no choice but to talk…


	14. Frozen: the rom-com version

**_Here's a weird romantic-drama or rom-com idea…_**

After the movie, Kristoff and Anna 'click' as a couple and seem headed for marriage. Sven (the reindeer with human intelligence) becomes jealous of Anna, and tries to break them up so he can keep Kristoff all to himself. Meanwhile, Elsa is also jealous of Kristoff because she loves Anna but takes longer to admit this to herself. Cue humor sequence of Elsa and Sven independently conspiring to spoil Kristoff and Anna's dates, alone times, etc - sometimes successfully, other times Elsa and Sven spoil each other's schemes by accident and thus end up canceling each other out.

Finally things come out in the open when Kristoff and Anna confront Sven and Elsa together, having noticed the attempted sabotage. Queen and reindeer share a look, suddenly both realizing they had the same dastardly goal all along - no wonder they often saw each other while spying on their loved ones' dates! Of course, Sven truly loves Kristoff and Elsa truly loves Anna, so they both realize they've been selfish and are suitably apologetic. They give Kristoff and Anna their blessing and even agree to serve as the Maid of Honor and Best Man (or best reindeer, in this case) for the wedding.

At the wedding reception, Sven says something to Elsa, but she doesn't understand him and asks Kristoff to translate. Kristoff nervously hesitates but at Elsa's insistence, finally tells her… "Well, it looks like we both lost our true loves after all. Might as well give each other a try… do you wanna get dinner sometime?" Elsa spits out her drink - and it's frozen before it hits the ground - the entire banquet hall frosted over instantly.

Yet, despite all her protests, there's Elsa in the post-credits scene two years later, sitting on the straw with her plate of salmon and chocolate cake, in front of Sven with his carrots, the reindeer visibly amused as Elsa recounts her boring day with the royal council…


	15. Powers Anna would have, if she had them

**_When people speculate that Anna has dormant magic powers which were suppressed by Pabbie's memory modification, they inevitably seem to give her fire powers. But I think Anna's magic is a little more subtle, more loving, and less combative/violent._**

My speculation:

Elsa's summer blizzard during coronation destroyed Arendelle's crops and livestock, so people are worried about famine. Elsa and Anna take a royal tour to survey the damage and plan for how to keep the population fed this winter. Large portions of the withered farm fields miraculously recover.

It turns out that Anna radiates some kind of healing magic that works mostly on plants, nature, and other "summer associated things" such that anywhere she goes, all plants in the immediate area (including crops) grow extremely robust. The effect takes a few days/weeks to kick in.

Once they discover what Anna's powers are, they start sending her to visit all the farms each year. Neighboring kingdoms desperately send their spies to try to learn the secret behind Arendelle's suddenly doubled crop yields. The secret is finally figured out after the royal sisters make a state visit to some other country and plants sprout up in the places they visited after they leave. From that moment on, Anna becomes the target of so much intrigue that it's impossible to keep her safe anymore. After multiple kidnap/murder attempts by multiple traitorous/bribed guards and servants, the sisters get into a huge argument with Elsa wanting to close the gates again and Anna refusing to give up her life outside despite the risks.)


	16. Permutations 10: oh no, the children!

**_Elsa and Anna hide their romance… but what if their children found out about it?_**

_(My main __fic, "A Little Outside of Nature's Laws" is my own answer to option 10-C of this prompt… I haven't got time or skill enough to write them all, though, that's why I'm posting them here in hopes that someone else might be inspired to take up any or all of these ideas.)_

Permutation Idea #10:

Kristoff marries Anna; they have a son and daughter, taking care of the heir issue easily, and deflecting public suspicion of Elsa and Anna's sinful relationship.

But one night Elsa overhears something suspicious from her nephew's room. It won't do for the prince to be sneaking a lover behind his parents' back, so she cautiously investigates. Elsa quietly slips open the door and sees her nephew in the throes of passion, busily thrusting into his own sister (her niece) - it seems her sister's children took after their mother in more ways than one...

Option 10A - Elsa freaks out, and the snow burst stops the young prince and princess in mid-thrust as they realize they've been caught…

Option 10B - Elsa manages to shrink back quickly enough to avoid alerting the two teenagers, and now stands panicking in the corridor about what to do with the horrific secret she's just discovered… the noises continuing unabated through the wall

Option 10C (can run concurrently with any of the above or below) Elsa works up the nerve to confront her nephew and learns that the children know her secret, too.

Option 10D (can run concurrently with any of the above/below) Instead of Elsa stumbling on the kids' secret, it's Anna herself who finds them - and has to decide whether to confront her kids, or tell Elsa, or Kristoff, or do something else? (or the kids see her at the same time and there's no way out of an immediate confrontation… is it worse to be caught by the queen/aunt, or by your own mother?)

Option 10E (can run concurrently with any of the above) When Elsa finally works up the nerve to tell Anna about her discovery, Anna admits to having independently discovered the same thing, she just hadn't figured out how to bring it up, and/or feared it would be hypocritical of her to say anything. Elsa argues that it's different with two sisters because there's no risk of pregnancy. The teenaged prince and princess don't like that argument very much...

OR: When the teenaged prince and princess are confronted, they argue that their relationship is okay precisely *because* they are able to provide heirs for the kingdom, whereas Anna had to marry Kristoff because she could not have heirs with Elsa. Who is right?


	17. WhatIf:ballroom accident never happened?

A twist on the "Anna goes back in time to undo the original tragedy, making things worse and causing her own death" idea.

How about one where Elsa goes back in time, instead?

Magically granted one wish, Elsa uses her wish to make sure that her 8-year-old self and her parents are told about how to undo her powers using love. As a result, she didn't fear hurting anyone and was not confined to her room after the incident, instead playing with her abilities all the time.

Elsa returns to the altered "present" to find Arendelle in smoking ruins.

In the original timeline, Elsa's parents locked down the castle and sent away all but a select handful of their most trusted servants and guards. But in the altered timeline, 8-year-old Elsa and her parents were encouraged to use love as the solution, and learned how to control her powers immediately after the accident, rendering them fluffy and harmless at will. As a result, they kept the castle open and retained all of their servants. Some of those extra servants were Weselton spies who soon reported Elsa's powers back to a younger, more hot-headed and impulsive Duke of Weselton. The Duke's extreme ideological hatred of magic overwhelmed his reasonable judgment, causing him to immediately declare a holy crusade against Arendelle. Nine years later, the entire region is still at war.

(In the original timeline, the Duke was a decade older and mellower by the time he found out Elsa's powers; he was still hateful enough to send two men to kill her, but he was physically away from his army back home and unable to summon them on the spot. He wanted to, but couldn't do anything until he got home, so he had a 2 day boat ride to cool off a bit and realize that attacking 21-year-old, fully-powered Elsa would be futile. By contrast, in the alternate timeline he was in his own office when he heard about the magic, with his army officers just around the corner, and 12-year-old Elsa's magic was still years away from full power, so she couldn't fight a whole army.)

Having now felt the guilt of being responsible for thousands more deaths in addition to her own sister, Elsa eagerly returns to the world in which staying in her room for 13 years prevented mass destruction on a continent-wide scale, finding the memories far more bearable, knowing that there was no better way.

Back in the original timeline's "present," Elsa wakes up from the dream and can't go back to sleep. She goes to check on Anna and runs into her in the middle of the corridor – they were both going to each other's rooms at the same time.

Turns out Anna just returned from her own attempt at changing the past. Anna's version caused her to be accidentally frozen by Elsa just as multiple fanfics have already described and she likewise accepted their current timeline as the only happy one. Naturally, Anna wasn't as thoughtful as Elsa about being careful with her own safety, and that's why their alternate futures differ – Anna saw an eternally frozen Arendelle caused by her death triggering Elsa's emotional outburst, while Elsa saw a burned-out Arendelle caused by circumstances beyond her control.

After hearing each other's alternate futures, Anna is briefly depressed upon realizing both "bad futures" were her fault (in her version she was reckless, in Elsa's version her pushing Elsa to use magic led to the spies discovering it). Their usual pattern is reversed for once – Elsa is the one reassuring Anna that she's worth everything.

Profoundly impacted by their alternate-timeline experiences, the two sisters never spend another night apart… until a few months later when rumors start floating about the distinct noises coming from their rooms every night. The rumors are ignored at first but increase in strength every time either sister turns down a suitor. Finally they are exposed and flee for their lives, leaving a kingdom in anarchy with no heirs; the inevitable War of the Arendellian Succession follows, as Weselton and the Southern Isles fight so intensely that they've long since annihilated the very prize they were fighting over. Elsa and Anna are hiding with the trolls when they learn that their kingdom has been wiped off the map. From then on, Elsa suffers nightmares of her parents frowning upon her in disappointment, their silent condemnation of her failure far more painful than any words could be. She was supposed to protect their people, but she could not: the love that saved them from her curse also doomed them by other means.

The trolls help Anna to enter Elsa's dreams. When the next nightmare comes, Anna appears between Elsa and their parents and vents at them. After a raging argument, they reach an understanding and Elsa wakes up feeling much better. The sisters renounce their humanity and ask to be adopted into the troll tribe, where they will be allowed to be together as they should be.

Elsa and Anna, along with their now-adopted-brother Kristoff, enjoy many happy years together. But humans are not trolls, and due to the too-small initial gene pool, genetic drift results in all of their grandchildren ending up with Elsa's defective Westermarck-effect genes. As a result, some generations later, their descendants are becoming more and more hideously deformed and diseased – the inevitable consequence of their continued inbreeding. Lacking modern medical technology, the long-lived trolls are helpless as they watch their adopted human family members die in terrible suffering.

Far too late, watching from the stars above, Elsa realizes that she should have used her one wish less selfishly: she should have wished for herself to never be born. Anna would have been raised as the queen, learned not to be a foolish romantic, never had an inaccessible sister to pine for, and taken her place in the natural order.

(Or she could wish she didn't have magic. But that doesn't stop her from getting entangled with Anna as they grew up and doesn't change their future one whit, except that they got exposed even earlier than they did.)

Elsa's brooding thoughts are interrupted by a slap. It's Anna, her fellow star in the sky, giving her sister an incredulous look. "Do you really think I would've been happy growing up as the queen and marrying whoever they told me to?" Both sisters know each other too well. Things may have turned out for the worst, but at least they were happy for most of their time on Earth.

As Pabbie and the trolls hold the funeral for Elsa's last remaining great-great-grandchild back on Earth, two adjacent stars blink in the night sky.


	18. Background: Hans's Brothers and the Duke

The Southern Isles royal family: Behind the scenes of Medieval Disneyworld's most powerful kingdom

_I've placed all Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and similar animated medieval kingdoms in the same Middle-Earth-esque world. This includes Merida's Scotland ("Brave"), Shrek's Far Far Away, the Vikings in "How To Train Your Dragon", Rapunzel's Corona ("Tangled"), and whatever other Disney kingdoms have medieval settings. However, this story is focused on one particular kingdom, the Southern Isles. Don't worry, the others will show up if you move forwards or backwards in the history of this world. I just haven't written the history out that far yet._

_I've arbitrarily set Elsa's coronation to the summer of 1417 AD but the technology shown in "Frozen" indicates anywhere from 1300s to 1600s would be plausible. Also, the geography and history of Europe in this "Disney-world" is altered compared to modern-day Earth, to make it easier to incorporate all the little kingdoms._

* * *

These are the 13 sons and 3 daughters of King Johann IV of the Southern Isles.

**King Johann**, age 62, was the fourth of four brothers and never expected to be king of the region's most populated and most powerful kingdom. Growing up against the backdrop of a great war over the newly discovered, resource-rich island of Catan, he has seen the Southern Isles' fortunes wane, their old ways of conquest unsuited to the changing times. His father and three older brothers were all killed in battle over 20 years of warfare as the once-great Kingdom of the Southern Isles fought to maintain its regional superpower status against an alliance of aggrieved city-states led by the Duchy of Weselton. This profoundly impacted Johann, and as a monarch, he is unusually progressive and idealistic for his time.

Johann took the throne at the age of 25 after two older brothers were killed in battle in quick succession, leaving behind his wife and toddler son to lead the last-ditch fight for his kingdom's survival. For two harrowing years Johann was the only adult survivor of his royal line, and that line was almost extinguished on multiple occasions. His throne and life were saved by the allegiance of two older men to his family – two kings we know as the grandfathers of Elsa and Rapunzel, respectively. The two brothers-in-law saw something in the extraordinary young prince that others did not; as a result, Arendelle and Corona honored their alliances even as the Southern Isles' other small allies deserted, hoping to share the spoils from the larger kingdom's fall.

Today, 37 years after the great peace treaty, the Southern Isles are secure once more, but King Johann never forgot the loyalty of his father's allies in those crucial moments that turned the tide of the war – or how close he came to death on multiple occasions.

Due to his paranoia about disasters killing off all his sons and ending his royal line, King Johann sought the help of a witch after the war ended, and used magic to boost his fertility and ensure that he would have many more sons than daughters. Unfortunately, as a side effect of the magic, Johann is widowed; his first wife died giving birth to triplets and his second wife died shortly after giving birth to Hans. The old king never remarried after that, finally feeling secure enough after having 13 sons and not a single major war in almost 4 decades. Today he is about 62 years of age and slowing down a bit, but still clear-minded and sharp as ever. He allows his crown prince to do most of the talking, rarely speaking up to propose a better idea. Like most idealistic princes, Johann has been disappointed at the slow pace of reform throughout his reign and accepts that it may be many generations before his vision of a peaceful and utopian Disneyworld is realized.

Johann had 16 children and 8 grandchildren at the time of "Frozen" (37 years after the great war upon which the "Settlers of Catan" board game is based):

**1\. Frederick,** age 43 – The eldest crown prince was just a toddler when his father was called away to take the throne and fight the Catan War. He was 5 when his father returned, but has had the most of his father's attention since. Now, at the age of 43, he is effectively co-regent of the kingdom. Has one son, Haakon (age 20), with his wife Cinderella. Yes, the one with the glass slippers.

**2\. Lars,** age 40 – Three years younger than Frederick, served in the army to learn military skills, now working as commander of the royal bodyguards. He is close to his elder brother and father and taught his nephew Haakon to fight for his own safety. Lars and his wife Ingrid have no children; Lars has allowed the rumor that he is impotent in order to cover the real truth – he is gay, and despite his father's efforts, social attitudes change slowly. He confided in his father and two oldest brothers, who are supportive.

**3\. Mikkel,** age 39 – Third child, currently serving as royal governor of South Catan (the Southern Isles-owned half of the resource-rich islands, gained from the last war). He is a capable administrator and has made South Catan one of the kingdom's most prosperous provinces. Mikkel and his wife Beatrice (a second princess from a minor neutral kingdom) have three children.

**4.** **Johanna,** age 38 – Eldest of 3 daughters, fourth child overall. As a mother figure to many of her younger siblings, she has been instrumental in maintaining good relations between the children of the King's first wife (her own mother) and second wife, showering all her siblings and half-siblings with love equally and making a point of countering her stepmother's favoritism. Thus, despite having no children, she may be the most important person in the kingdom: she's likely the reason her stepbrothers aren't jealously scheming against her elder brothers for the throne. Many of them have come to confide in her. Over the years, she almost became an unofficial spymaster – even though the kingdom already has one, she knows as much as the official spymaster does about everything that goes on in the royal family and a lot of other things, too. She has refused to marry, and would be too independent for most men of her era anyways. At her father's insistence, she is allowed a seat on the royal council, where she has the best ideas so frequently that the ministers have gradually accepted her participation. Still, there is a tacit understanding that if her three older princes die, the throne will go to the next brother, skipping over her. The entire royal family knows that Princess Johanna is more than qualified to rule, but that knowledge will have to be good enough for her, because their society isn't ready for a spinster queen regnant yet. But as a progressively more senior royal advisor, out of the limelight, she can still do almost as much for her country as a monarch would.

The responsible, tactful, clever eldest sister still isn't perfect. It was her idea to send Hans to Arendelle. She wanted to see the good in all those she loved, and regrets taking so long to notice what went on among some of her youngest siblings behind her back – especially how they treated Hans, the youngest. She's tended to spoil him a little since, but could never give him what he most wanted – to be recognized as an equal by his brothers. Karl was originally going to be the one sent to Arendelle for their coronation, but Johanna thought Hans needed the experience more and got her father to switch the assignment. No one had any idea Arendelle's royal sisters were that socially stunted and vulnerable. Or that there was terrible ice magic involved. Or that Hans would overreach like he did.

**5\. Celeste,** age 36 – Second daughter, fifth child. It was after her birth – the second daughter in a row – that the King sought magical assistance to ensure more sons in his family, indirectly leading to the death of her mother giving birth to triplet boys less than two years later. In her childhood she was much more feminine and traditional than her older sister and seemed on a path to become the 'true' Princess of the Southern Isles, until she overheard that her father had wanted her to be a son rather than a daughter – and realized that if she had been a son, her father might not have undergone the magic spell that ultimately cost her mother's life. The revelation shattered young Celeste's world. Hurt and devastated, she made it her life's mission to prove that a princess could be just as worthy as a prince. She resented her father for a number of years before coming to understand his personal reasons for doing what he did. The King, too, came to regret his excessive worries about having enough heirs, and reconciled with his daughter before she dressed as a man to enlist in the navy at age 18.

Shortly after enlisting, she fell in love with a commoner during shore leave, one of the new Catan settlers, and a few years later they had to marry in secret to maintain her false identity as a naval officer. Her husband agreed to be disqualified from the line of succession to the throne as a condition of their marriage, and largely raised their child at home (under the cover of working as Prince Mikkel's secretary), while she rose through the ranks. Meanwhile, a year ago Celeste achieved the rank of first officer and was recommended for promotion to captain, which required the King's approval. Wary of possible attempts to curry favor, the King checked to make sure the officers recommending his disguised daughter didn't know who she really was before signing off on her commission. And then he congratulated the new captain in person, following standard procedure. "I would have been proud to call you my own son," he says, and no one else in the room understands just how personal that compliment is, or how much it means to the new captain.

Today, Princess Celeste captains the newest 24-gun frigate in the South Catan squadron and hopes to eventually retire as an admiral. She still keeps her identity secret to avoid prejudicing her possible final promotion, but looks forward to the day she can reveal herself and shock her entire nation. But now that their child is almost grown, her husband wants to move in with his wife aboard their ship. This has started to cause some friction in their marriage. She feels that her career advancement will stall once her gender is known, and doesn't want to choose between her career and marriage – but it might happen.

**6-7-8. Henrik, Harald,** and** Halvor**, age 35 – triplets who are technically not identical, but as kids purposely maintained similar enough appearances that they might as well be, much to the consternation of the royal servants and tutors. They are the last children of King Johann's first wife, who died from the difficult childbirth. Being without a mother has been difficult, but two older sisters have helped fill the gap, a little. 15-year-old Princess Johanna ended up being the one to give the 12-year-old triplets the "birds and bees" talk – which remains one of the funniest memories in all four of their lives to this day.

Though all three brothers were trained as potential crown princes, they understand that they ideally will not inherit, and have gone into the army together, to serve their country and perhaps protect their family. The three brothers fervently hope that the throne never comes to them, because they share everything and their greatest fear is that power will turn them against each other one day. If their older brothers are gone, they trust each other more than any of their younger brothers to look after the kingdom and continue their father's benevolent policies. Yet, how can they possibly decide who among the three will be king? They'd much rather give Johanna the crown in such a scenario, but all four of them understand that their society is not yet ready to accept a spinster queen.

The three brothers and their families now live on Catan Island, where they rotate among military posts in the garrison. They take turns attending major palace events (royal balls, treaty celebrations, greeting ambassadors) back on the home islands, so one of them is always in position to defend their homes on Catan in case of emergency. They will neither confirm nor deny that they occasionally impersonate each other for the purpose of sharing their three wives amongst them.

**9\. Anders**, age 32 – first child of King Johann's second wife, ninth child overall and seventh prince; he was 9 when his mother died. Still unmarried at 32, currently vice-governor of South Catan under his (half-)brother Mikkel. Rumors of the dashing prince's homosexuality are dismissed as an inevitable side-effect of his withdrawn and surly personality making it hard for him to charm the ladies. Princess Johanna alone knows that the rumors are actually true in his case. He meets his lovers in disguise, and so far, hasn't been caught.

**10\. Soren**, age 31 – a full-time diplomat representing the Southern Isles abroad. His oldest brothers were given similar diplomatic duties as part of their training to possibly take the throne. But unlike them, Soren knows that a prince and diplomat is the highest rank he will ever have, unless he may be lucky enough to woo a foreign princess. Unlike Hans, however, Soren is accepting of his fate and willing to make the best of what he's been born into. He's had a few marriage offers, none from princesses, but hasn't liked any of the women enough to settle. He's only 31, and being only the 8th out of 13 princes, he's under no pressure to produce any heirs. The supply contract for block ice which he negotiated with Elsa's father in Arendelle five years ago is still in effect today.  
(Truth be told, there is one woman he does like enough… but they can't be more than just friends, because her crusty old father is dead set against him courting her...)

**11-12. Georg** and** Ida**, age 29 – fraternal twin brother and sister who, lacking sufficient parental supervision and boundaries, have stumbled their way into a devastating secret: they love each other just a little too much (note: massive understatement). Once the most affectionate of siblings, they no longer do more than hold hands in public, because otherwise they just can't control themselves. Fortunately, they've largely escaped scrutiny so far; Georg is unlikely to ever succeed to the throne and Ida's foreign marriage proposals have been largely inconsequential, since most of the major kingdoms in the region are allied against the Southern Isles anyways and their princes don't consider her for a marriage alliance. The incestuous couple briefly feared discovery at one point when Ida ended up pregnant and had to fake an illness and hide in her room for some months, but she miscarried, and they were able to find a very discreet doctor, who was led to believe Ida had an affair with a peasant. Georg serves as an on-demand royal diplomat like his older brother Soren, though he takes more interest in the business and trade negotiations and is really only pretending to search for a suitable wife. Ida is mostly left to her own devices and occasionally provides intel reports to both the kingdom spymaster and to her older sister Johanna.

**13\. Peter**, age 28 – seemed a little feminine growing up, and is the one people most openly suspect of being gay; he isn't and strongly resents the rumors. He's planning to court a princess of a small regional kingdom and hopes that will finally shut people's mouths about him.

**14-15. Karl** and** Kristian**, age 26 – fraternal twin brothers who as kids tended to gang up on Hans, the only one younger than them (and the only one they could pick on). They were 3 when their mother died, and their father wasn't really around to discipline them; no wonder they could get out of hand sometimes. Both strongly disinclined to military matters and preferring civil administration, the two brothers are being moved around various administrative and diplomatic jobs to keep them useful until they can find a good marriage. Karl is currently a constable on one of the smaller Southern Isles and Kristian is studying shipbuilding at the main naval dockyards. The third ship he helped to launch last year is actually the very ship Princess Celeste now captains, though he is not privy to the secret.

**16\. Hans**, age 23 – the youngest child, 16th overall, 13th prince. His mother having died just days after his birth, he was essentially raised by his half-sister Johanna, and with so many other children around, she wasn't always there to protect him. One day, 8-year-old Hans broke down and told Johanna what was going on; she threatened Karl and Kristian to stop – which they did, but they also retaliated against the "tattling" by pretending Hans didn't exist for the next two years. Johanna encouraged Hans to ignore them back and wait for them to come around, and eventually both of them (around age 13) did apologize to their kid brother and try to reconcile. But still, Hans, Karl, and Kristian have all found themselves somewhat neglected by their older brothers, wishing to accomplish something and prove themselves. They had less to do than any of their older siblings, simply because so many older siblings took care of everything.

When Karl and Kristian came of age, they tried enlisting, but quickly found the military life was not for them. Hans, too, disliked the military. Subtlety was his strength, not overt confrontation.

So Hans decided to enter the Southern Isles spy service. As part of his secret agent training, he learned to fight with all weapons. But training only goes so far; a spy must also learn diplomacy, foreign customs and cultures, proper interaction with people of all ranks, and nothing can substitute for field experience.

Partway through his training, the allied kingdom of Arendelle held a coronation, sending invitations around the region. It seemed like an ideal first mission for Hans – a safe, low-stakes trip to observe an allied kingdom and greet its new monarch. He will go mainly to practice being a prince and maybe glean some intel on the side, but it's not particularly sensitive; he's mainly just there to show his face. At least, that's how it was supposed to happen.

Clearly, things didn't go according to plan.

**Grandchildren:**

**1\. Haakon**, age 20 – Only child of Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Cinderella, but also close to his uncle Lars, who taught him sword and spear fighting while his father was busy with royal duties. Since he is expected to inherit the throne over his 12 uncles, it's possible that a jealous uncle might someday try to make an issue out of his mother's peasant ancestry (even though it has been known and accepted throughout the kingdom for the past 20 years). Haakon's father, grandfather, and older uncles have done their best to protect him. They have agreed to a standing decree that if anything happens to Haakon, Lars will be presumed guilty unless proven innocent and disqualified from the throne; this way, Lars, who is best positioned to usurp Haakon, will have no incentive to do so. Of course, this means Mikkel is the one who would theoretically gain from Haakon's death, but since Mikkel lives away from the palace it is presumably more difficult for him to scheme and he would have to overcome Frederick and Lars. In any case, these safeguards are unlikely to be needed; the three oldest princes were lucky to be born while their father still had time and energy to raise them, and so were imbued with the idealism of putting their kingdom first; scheming for the throne is not in the kingdom's interest.

**2\. Gunnar**, age 15 – son of Prince Mikkel and Princess Beatrice of [Insert-Kingdom-Here], being closely watched by his family because his ambition seems a little much for someone so young and just 15th in line for the throne. Still, he hasn't done anything treacherous yet, and seems headed for a naval career.

**3\. Yvonne**, age 12 – daughter of Prince Mikkel and Princess Beatrice of [Insert-Kingdom-Here], an ordinary princess growing up in the Catan governor's house, who is just beginning to learn (from her history lessons) just how high of a price her people have paid for the settlement of Catan.

**4\. Paul**, age 8 – son of Prince Mikkel and Princess Beatrice of [Insert-Kingdom-Here], a young boy enjoying the childhood his grandfather never had. He would like to see northern Catan someday; his father hopes that will soon be possible, as lingering tensions from the great war continue to dissipate.

**5\. Erik**, age 16 – initially born as the son of Princess Celeste and Sir Simon Dahl, but has struggled with 'his' gender identity and wants to be female. Unfortunately, transgender issues and modern medicine just don't exist in this era, so this would-be transwoman is stuck with her male body and the accompanying social expectations. She's kept her secret from her father out of fear, but confided in her mother. Being skilled in acting the part of either a man or a woman (the former because she must, the latter by choice), she intends to join the spy service as soon as she is of age – it may be the only place in the world she can ever put her cross-dressing preferences to good use for the kingdom.

**6\. John**, age 7 – son of Prince Henrik, starting to be able to help babysit his younger cousins. He has asked to learn how to shoot a crossbow, but is far from strong enough to properly use one.

**7\. Sara**, age 3 – daughter of Prince Halvor, starting to say a few words.

**8\. Ingrid**, age 1 – daughter of Prince Harald, currently the cutest member of the royal family.

* * *

**Bonus Feature: Konrad, Duke of Weselton** – the nemesis of the Southern Isles

**Konrad,** age 75 – the current Duke of Weselton. Though a military genius and creative mastermind in his youth, he is now ultra-conservative and exactly the opposite of the reformist King Johann IV of the Southern Isles. Konrad's family, like so many other northern Baltic people, suffered from the heavy hand of Southern Isles hegemony. His father taught him how their world worked, but it never hit home for the boy until his mother was raped by a man whom the police dared not prosecute because he worked for an important Southern Isles person. The defeated look in the eyes of the Weselton policeman sparked something in young Konrad, who gave up his dream of being an architect to join the army instead – so that he could learn to fight and stop the humiliation of his people. His timing was perfect; just a few months after he enlisted, the great Catan War broke out, a coordinated uprising by the eight cities of the Christian League against the Southern Isles.

The eight allied armies, with Konrad among the Weselton men, arrived on Catan, where in their third battle, Konrad's officers were killed by a lucky shot from an enemy trebuchet. With confusion spreading through their ranks, Konrad quickly grabbed a dead officer's jacket (with its rank insignia) and started shouting orders to rally the men. His initiative saved the day, preventing an early end to the war. Konrad's tactical brilliance was soon recognized and earned him promotion after promotion.

The Southern Isles expeditionary force was reinforced with more and more men, but still could not break the allied hold on northern Catan. Decades without serious challenge had fostered a smug complacency throughout the Southern Isles military, and it took several months before the true urgency of the situation finally filtered up the ranks to reach the ears of King Johann III.

But the Southern Isles monarchy, once finally alerted to the true situation, responded as they customarily did – with massive force. The Isles' entire standing army came to Catan on the entire Southern Isles armada, with King Johann III personally taking command. At Catan, he disembarked with half of his army, which together with the remnants of his Catan garrison, outnumbered the League's eight armies combined. Crown Prince Hans – not to be confused with his more infamous nephew – led the other half of the Southern Isles army to Weselton, together with most of the fleet, hoping to break the alliance by forcing its leaders to surrender.

The news of Weselton's surrender, along with the Duke's orders recalling all Weselton forces from the alliance, arrived on Catan just as the allies were celebrating their biggest victory so far – they had just repelled King Johann's first assault after three hard days of fighting. As the disappointed Weseltonian troops packed up for their return home, Konrad gathered his unit and told them the story of what he had seen eight years ago, hiding in his mother's closet as the Southern Islander tax collector took more than he was legally entitled to. He praised his men for having done their duty and fought honorably for the past year; he, however, had not done his. His duty was a self-imposed one, and one which he was more likely to die trying than to actually fulfill.

Konrad's time as a Weselton soldier was over – or so he thought at the time. Weselton could not afford to sacrifice her own survival in the pursuit of revenge; Konrad, however, could sacrifice himself – and he did.

Leaving his colonel's rank insignia on the ground in front of his men, Konrad fled into the forest, allowing the men to choose for themselves. Several dozen of his regiment chose to follow him, accepting that their own country would be forced to outlaw them. And for the next twelve years Konrad waged a guerrilla campaign all over the island, his fame and legend growing with every daring escapade. Supply carts were sabotaged, cavalry horses poisoned, ships burned to the waterline, colonial officials' severed heads appeared on pikes, entire infantry patrols disappeared without a trace. On three separate occasions when the rebels assassinated Southern Isles tax collectors sent from the home islands, the corpses were found with bloody letters carved across their bodies: "Mom, this one's for you – K." Within a few years, various cities began to covertly offer aid and deserters and civilians alike began turning up in increasing numbers to offer themselves as fighters or sympathizers. The Southern Isles had made many enemies, and every rebel victory brought more rebels out of the woodwork.

As the drain on the Southern Isles treasury increased, the kingdom was forced to demand more and more tribute from its subject states. The heavy-handed tactics that had worked in generations past now only fanned the flames. Random executions of Weseltonian civilians in reprisal for Konrad's actions on Catan did nothing to protect the Southern Isles villages on the island, but instead inspired aggrieved Weseltonians to copy Konrad's methods of resistance. Riots and disturbances became an increasingly frequent occurrence throughout the northern towns, even in those nominally friendly to the Isles. The core cities of the Christian League tacitly settled on a new strategy: the new goal was to bankrupt the Southern Isles, since they had already tried and failed with overt military opposition.

Konrad had now stalemated 25,000 enemy soldiers with fewer than 400 men of his own, while inspiring copycat rebel groups throughout the northern mainland to tie down even more Southern Isles occupation forces. None of the other groups, however, could match his success in raids. None had found a leader of Konrad's skill or devotion to the cause, and the casualty rates of the mainland rebels were significantly higher than that of Konrad's men on Catan Island. Still, with the constant disturbances all over their empire, King Johann's ministers were barely able to keep enough money and supplies flowing to their armies…

Then, in the 12th year of the war, Konrad finally got his big break. For 12 years, the aging Duke of Weselton had cooperated with the Southern Isles occupation of his nation. But the 68-year-old Duke suffered a heart attack and was succeeded by his 42-year-old son, a more daring and headstrong man than his father.

At his coronation, the new Duke pledged his loyalty to the Southern Isles and instituted the harshest censorship regime in Weselton's history. Under his father's reign, only the more vocal or active dissenters were punished for their opposition, usually by public flogging or short imprisonments, and only when Southern Isles garrison leaders actively demanded their prosecution. But now anyone who spoke against the occupiers simply vanished – people naturally assumed the worst.

But the young Duke was playing a dangerous double game. The "disappeared" dissidents were not being executed and dumped into the sea – but instead, were being exiled: smuggled to points just off the Catan Island coastline, then thrown overboard with a wink, a nudge, and three days' rations, warned never to return to Weselton on pain of death. The vast majority of these men made it to shore and found their way into Konrad's rebel force – and within just one year Konrad had gained more recruits than he had in the last ten.

The new Duke was not only more sympathetic to Konrad's cause, but also had more faith in the young man's ability to prevail against the odds – for he had witnessed Konrad's military talents in his capacity as Prince of Weselton and Konrad's fellow army officer 12 years ago, during their brief first year on Catan together. For this reason, even though he officially supported the Southern Isles, he secretly did much more to promote the rebellion than his father had.

The increase in rebel activity on Catan Island was soon noticed, and after several months of covert operations the Duke's treachery was discovered. In the resulting outrage, King Johann III made a decisive strategic blunder. Rather than changing his strategy or recognizing his failures, he attempted to turn up the heat even further. His three elder sons did not question it, for that was how things had always been done in the Southern Isles – apply increasing force until you get your way. The youngest son, Prince Johann (later King Johann IV), expressed his doubts, but was overruled.

Johann III decided to destroy the Duchy of Weselton and massacre its entire population – an example to deter future opposition throughout the empire. So, over the course of three days, the armies of the Southern Isles rampaged through the city and then spread across the countryside, killing anyone in sight, carting off everything of value and burning the rest to ashes. The Duke and several hundred of his men sacrificed themselves in a heroic rearguard action which gave thousands of their people a few more hours to flee. Weselton's last census three years prior counted a population of 125,000 throughout the duchy. In the first census after the end of the great war, there were fewer than 60,000.

News of the massacre spread along with the Weselton refugees and almost instantly triggered massive popular uprisings across the northern lands. The already stretched-thin Southern Isles occupation forces in all seven remaining cities of the Christian League were quickly overwhelmed, some fleeing while others found themselves besieged in the citadels of their cities, as the local gendarmeries turned against them and joined the revolting populations. The newly re-established League was shortly joined by most of the smaller cities in the area, including several that had remained neutral up to this point.

At this point slightly more than half of Konrad's men were of Weseltonian origin, and the news of their hometown's destruction was received with shock and disbelief. Konrad himself was unaccountably gleeful upon learning of the massacre, as he now finally had an opportunity to turn the tide of the war once and for all – his long-sought revenge against the Southerners was finally within sight! Only later that evening, after overhearing some of his Weseltonian men remembering their lost friends and family from back home, did Konrad realize with a jolt how much of his humanity the long quest for revenge had taken from him. Shaken by his realization, Konrad began to doubt his mission for the first time in 14 years, even as its prospects were looking brighter than ever.

The following morning Konrad assembled his senior commanders and asked them to join him in a new cause: re-founding the lost Duchy of Weselton. He was tired of destroying things and wanted to build something, instead. Konrad's lieutenants, even the few non-Weseltonians, approved heartily of the idea. They had all been outlawed by the old Weselton government, but that no longer existed – so in their minds, they were now the only true Weseltonians left in the world.

Konrad's men proposed that he should become their new Duke and bring his tactical skills to the mainland to take advantage of the new outpouring of sympathy for their cause. Konrad agreed, and three days later the rebels managed to sneak Konrad and a few handpicked men off the island during a series of diversionary attacks.

In disguise, Konrad reached the allied city of Aabo and officially claimed the vacant dukedom of Weselton, becoming a Duke without a country – for the moment. Survivors from the former land of Weselton and other opponents of the Southern Isles flocked to his banner. When King Johann III arrived with his army a few months later, Konrad confronted him outside the city with an army of his own – eight thousand new volunteers, about a thousand of whom were Weseltonian survivors of the massacre.

But the volunteers were a decoy: Konrad's real army was in fact the one thousand professional soldiers, guards, gendarmes, and other such armed men hiding in the long grass of the battlefield, lent to him by the Aabo city council. As the Southerners charged at what appeared to be an untrained mob, spears popped out of the grass and impaled them in the middle of the field. Then hundreds of crossbowmen – the bulk of Aabo's official military – popped up on both flanks of the Southerners. King Johann III was shot in the back as he fled from the rout of his army. And thus the legendary guerrilla rebel became a legendary general.

The Christian League proclaimed Konrad their commander-in-chief and successor to Weselton's place on their council. Over the next six years, Konrad led the allies to a string of victories across the realm, shrinking the dominion of the Southern Isles to almost nothing and killing three Southern Isles princes in battle.

Following the death of King Havard I, who reigned for only three months after succeeding his older brother, the Kingdom of the Southern Isles consisted of only its original home islands and a single citadel on the southern end of Catan, besieged by the League's forces.

So it was that the crumbling throne of the Southern Isles devolved upon the youngest of the four princes – 25-year-old Prince Johann, who became King Johann IV upon his brother's death. On the very day of his coronation, the new king received word that four of his last six allies had switched sides, lacking faith in his ability to succeed where his brothers had failed.

The following morning, young Johann IV sat on the throne that still didn't feel like his own, indeed was never supposed to be his own, and once again read the list of demands written to him by Konrad, Duke of Weselton, on behalf of the League. If he agreed, the Southern Isles would come to an end; he would abdicate, and the Isles would be split into individual colonies, each occupied by League forces until a sufficient indemnity had been extracted for the past 19 years of war.

The young king started to sign his acceptance – then hesitated. A messenger brought another letter that had arrived late.

The unmarked letter was addressed to Havard I (having been sent two weeks ago) from King Magnus VI of Arendelle, one of the last two cities on the Southern Isles side of the war. Magnus informed his ally that the Arendellians had just defeated a combined siege by the secondary forces of Christiana and Weselton and were now finally on their way to help the Southern Isles. King Magnus also believed that he was close to persuading his brother-in-law, Frederick IX of Corona, to risk committing his main army to help.

King Johann promptly emptied the palace, bringing all his guards with him. He summoned all available soldiers and gendarmes to his main harbor. In the dead of night, the young king and his last few thousand fighting men set out to save their homeland.

Konrad and his League commanders were aware that two armies were coming to break their siege on south Catan. King Magnus and his army landed on the northwest side of Catan. Konrad took his best men to confront them, leaving his less-skilled troops to fend off King Johann's expected arrival. The Arendelle army at nearly full-strength represented a greater threat than the demoralized dregs of a once-proud Southern Isles military.

But during their days at sea, King Johann made his way from ship to ship, introducing himself to his men, gaining their trust, and sharing a vision that strongly appealed to his war-weary people. When Johann's men arrived on Catan they were no longer the dispirited washed-up Southerners that the allied armies were expecting, but instead an inspired band of brothers who finally believed in their cause and knew themselves to be on the right side of history. Johann led the Southern Islanders on foot, charging through a hail of crossbow bolts to break through the allied lines.

Magnus had known Johann as a teenager and had an instinctive feeling of what the kid was capable of. Konrad, lacking that same knowledge, had underestimated his latest opponent.

Suddenly, the war was once again in the balance. On one occasion Konrad almost succeeded in defeating the combined forces of Johann and Magnus, only to be denied his victory by the timely arrival of King Frederick's Coronan army on his flank. Another time, Konrad and his Weseltonian veterans managed to get within two sword-lengths of Johann himself, but the Arendellian royal guards held their ground, defending Johann as if he was their own king. Konrad never fully understood his adversaries' intense and seemingly unjustified loyalty to Johann, who was barely of age and the untested monarch of the region's most hated kingdom. But after a year of fruitless stalemate Konrad admitted that he had met his match on the battlefield, and grudgingly agreed to sit for peace negotiations.

Each of the League's cities had a representative at the treaty table, with Konrad speaking on behalf of the Weseltonians, a scattered people who hoped for the restoration of their homeland. Much to Konrad's surprise, King Johann opened the negotiation with an immediate offer of massive reparations to Weselton, along with smaller amounts to other League cities which had been wronged prior to the main course of the war. Johann's offer, to be paid over 30 years, was nearly what Konrad had intended to demand as his opening position. The rest of the negotiations went smoothly after that. The disputed territory, Catan and its island chain, were evenly split and Johann agreed to limits on the size of the Southern Isles military.

Thus, after two decades of adventures abroad, Konrad the carpenter's son returned to Weselton an international hero and virtual founding father of his nation. A minority of the Weseltonian diaspora remained abroad, but the vast majority, over 50,000 people, returned to rebuild their homes. Konrad proved to be as talented a civil administrator as he was a military leader, and although the new Duchy of Weselton was far smaller than the old one, it was efficiently run and quickly prospered.

This also meant that the now 42-year-old Duke was the region's most eligible bachelor. Initially the Duke was hesitant to marry, still fearing a potential resumption of hostilities as the Southern Isles continued to rebuild, but as years passed by the need to secure his new throne became pressing and King Johann showed no sign of reneging on the peace treaty. Eventually, at age 46, Konrad chose his duchess, a pretty princess from the kingdom of Malmo, and she bore him a son and a daughter.

The Duchess never made much progress in mellowing out her husband, but she proved to be a moderating influence on their son, the Prince of Weselton. The Duke made sure their son learned the military arts, but the Duchess taught him to appreciate the finer things in life.

Even in peacetime, raising children while running a nation takes its toll on a middle-aged man. A few years ago, Konrad and his family were invited to the royal wedding of Princess Rapunzel of Corona, widely known for her 17-year disappearance and dramatic return. Konrad declined, out of lingering paranoia from his war years – Corona is still allied with the Southern Isles, which Konrad still considers a likely enemy of his nation – and for the same reason, refused to allow his son to attend – he will not risk having his only heir vulnerable in enemy territory, even in peacetime. But Konrad's wife and daughter were both eager to see Corona's "Lost Princess" for themselves, and so they went.

While at the wedding, Konrad's daughter found her first love – who unfortunately turned out to be a prince of the Southern Isles, the eighth son of King Johann IV. Unsurprisingly, Konrad was quite unhappy to learn of this, and absolutely refused to allow the courtship, despite much pleading by his daughter.

Duke Konrad retired to his room with a headache that night, and a few days later, decided that his son was ready to take on more responsibility in ruling the duchy. Interestingly enough, this was exactly what both the Duchess and the Prince had been telling him for the last two years.

Meanwhile, the young Princess of Weselton, always a classic good girl (and unlike a certain contemporary of hers, never needing to struggle with hiding any magic), obediently wrote to the eighth Prince of the Southern Isles to inform him of her father's disapproval. He wrote back expressing his regret and understanding. In subsequent years, however, the two of them have frequently run into each other (by genuine accident) at gatherings throughout the region. After this happened a few times, the two young royals agreed to be "just friends" and have now struck up a frequent correspondence. As is typical of close friends, they often complain to each other about their various suitors – always being careful not to cross a certain line.

The Duke of Weselton has since handed most of the administration over to his son and now serves in a semi-retired advisory role. Where formerly the Prince did most of the traveling and diplomatic work of the duchy, while his father remained at home to govern, they have now reversed roles, and the Duke has come to enjoy seeing how the desolate and war-torn world of his youth now thrives with commerce. Of course, his always-active mind, even at age 75, is constantly coming up with new ways to bring more of that money back home to Weselton – and indeed his trade partners constantly marvel at how sharp he remains, seemingly undiminished from one year to the next.

The Duke of Weselton is still unaware of his daughter's correspondence and if he ever finds out, it sure won't be from either of the women in his family.


	19. The Lady of the Ring: a Middle-Earth AU

**_Lord of the Rings AU: Two Possibilities_**

1\. Elsa as Ring-bearer - Elsa and Anna taking the roles of Frodo and Sam, on a quest to destroy the One Ring with the help of Grand Pabbie (Gandalf), Kristoff/Hans (fellow hobbits), and others.

2\. Elsa as Sauron and Anna as the One Ring - a much more intriguing scenario… could be either dark/onion-Elsa or canonical "good" Elsa, with Anna being either a willing or unwilling participant.

* * *

_2a. What if we invert the original LOTR story and make the Dark Lord the protagonist? A journey from Frozen movie-canon into Middle-Earth featuring six endings:_

In response to the unceasing attacks of all the surrounding kingdoms (driven by religious anti-witch sentiment and/or word getting out about the unnatural sexual perversions going on within Arendelle Castle), Queen Elsa goes to war and conquers her enemies. Elsa rules over her opponents with an iron fist and forces them to tolerate her relationship with Anna.

But years later, Anna's face is getting wrinkles and her hair is turning as white as Elsa's, and fresh discontent is rising among the subjects as it becomes clear that Elsa isn't aging like her sister does.

Immortal Elsa is so distraught at the imminent death of her beloved sister Anna (by aging or otherwise) that she turns to dark magic, despite the warnings of the elder trolls. She transfers Anna's soul out of her failing body and into the one metal (e.g. permanent) object that holds the greatest emotional significance to her – the wedding band Anna gave to her in the public ceremony following their final triumph 40 years ago.

The spell requires Elsa to sacrifice the vast majority of her inborn powers. Where once she could summon blizzards over entire nations, or raise armies of snow golems with a wave of her hand, now she is exhausted after building a simple ice palace. To Elsa, that sacrifice is well worth it.

When Elsa wears Anna on her ring finger, she can hear Anna whispering to her, her loving companion for eternity. In the daytime Anna is the advisor and sister she always was, while at night Anna's whispers take on a more sensual tone and her magical growing/shrinking/warming abilities in ring form effectively turn Elsa's fingers into a vibrator. But the servants see Elsa talking to her wedding ring, acting as if it's her dead sister, and think she's finally gone mad. Most remain loyal, out of fear if nothing else, but it takes only one deserter to fan the flames of rebellion.

The people have already realized that Elsa will never die of old age – her tyranny will last forever, unless they do something about it. They rise up.

This time, having given up most of her power, Elsa can no longer put down the rebels with a mere hand-wave. She is deserted by most of her human subjects and cannot replace her golems fast enough to keep up with the casualties.

On the slopes of North Mountain the witch queen is besieged by the Last Alliance of men (Southern Islanders), dwarves (Weseltonians) and elves (trolls/everyone else?) The fire pots wipe out Elsa's remaining minions, but Elsa herself seems invincible, until a young hero (Prince Hans's son/grandson?) cuts her precious ring finger away. Unable to endure the shock of losing Anna's voice, Elsa collapses and the battle seems to have been won…

The hero takes Elsa's ring as a prize, unaware of the living spirit contained within. He discovers that wearing it grants him immunity to freezing temperatures, as well as a small amount of Elsa's sorcery: not enough to build whole castles of ice, but just enough to throw one snowball… or one lethal icicle. Just for that little power, Elsa's ring becomes an item of tragic contention among the Southern Isles royalty and nobility, ultimately contributing to the downfall of the Southern Isles monarchy through endless assassinations and plots.

The Southern Isles princes never realize that the ring is not merely a passive object of contention – but is in fact malevolently pitting them against each other on purpose, because "it" is really a "she." The One Ring, formerly Anna, takes particular pleasure in ruining the family of Hans's descendants, in revenge for her separation from Elsa. Whether in human form or jewelry form, Anna has always had only one true love and one rightful owner – so by her convenient logic, these strange men who wear her on their finger are trading in stolen property, for which the penalty is still death in many less-enlightened kingdoms of the era.

Meanwhile, Elsa's decapitated head, frozen in the snow atop North Mountain, wakes up in terrible pain. Despite having greatly weakened herself as the price of keeping her sister past mortal years, Elsa's remaining power had seeped into the snow along with her blood and become preserved in the spot of her fall. When Elsa tries to get up, she pulls a chunk of snow from the ground with her… in the approximate shape of a human body. She soon realizes that the last of her birth powers acted instinctively in self-preservation, and are now stretching themselves the limit to hold together a replacement body of ice and snow for her. With an effort, she brings her icy finger to touch her still-human nose, and there's nothing to do but laugh. Only a month ago Elsa was empress of all Middle-Earth and now she is nothing more than her own snow golem – servant and master all in one.

From this low point, Elsa's climb back to power takes centuries. She hides in the woods until things have quieted down, ambushing an unfortunate woodsman to steal his clothing so that she can conceal her snow-body and pass as human.

Elsa remembers that it was a Southern Islander who cut her down, and surmises that her Anna must have been taken by them. Her sole purpose now is to find her beloved sister again, but Anna is probably trapped in the vaults of the Southern Isles treasury, or else in the possession of one of their princes, hidden behind legions of royal guards. To regain her beloved, Elsa decides that she must once again rise and conquer.

Having lost the ability to project deadly icicles at will (because it literally costs her an arm and a leg to do so – her magic is far more limited now, and when it's over there impaling her enemy, it can't be over here holding her snow-body in shape at the same time!), Elsa compensates by resorting to conventional weapons. She travels east, beyond the lands of Men, gradually recovering her strength and taking any opportunity to learn fighting skills. Over centuries she masters the art of swords, spears, and bows, becoming an itinerant knight.

500 years later the Kingdom of the Southern Isles has fallen into internal strife and disintegrated. Princes claiming various descents from the old royal line war for dominance. The strongest remnant of the old Southern Isles is the southern province of Gondor, ruled by the line of Hans's descendants.

Anna has finally gotten free of her "owners" after causing much mischief and has made her way, through a succession of temporary owners, back to the northwestern region where Arendelle once was. The few surviving Arendellian people were absorbed into the population of settlers from elsewhere, and their descendants now call their home "the Shire". Here, Anna lands in the possession of two childhood friends Kai and Gerda, who unbeknownst to even themselves are descendants of the ancient Queen Elsa's old servant of the same name. Kai's father obtained the ring during unknown adventures (probably involving Pabbie, who doesn't find out about the ring then). Unfortunately, Kai's father caught Anna when she tried to get lost from him, and now his son Kai keeps her on a necklace, which she can't escape no matter how she distorts her gold-metal form. Her quest for Elsa is at a dead end… but so long as she remains bound to the ring by Elsa's power, she knows that her sister must still be alive, searching for her.

Elsa has risen to become the top military adviser of the backwater eastern kingdom of Mordor, whose army she hopes will soon conquer back the empire that was once hers. Her powers have also improved somewhat from their lowest ebb, enabling her to pull a few tricks as a last resort – on occasion she has nearly been killed by an enemy general on the battlefield, but several of those men appear to have suffered sudden heart attacks just as they were about to strike the killing blow.

In one such battle, during a border war with the rival kingdom of Mirkwood, the enemy force rallies despite the loss of their leader, pushing Elsa and her Mordorians back to their camp. The Mirkwood troops recover their prince's body and find it ice cold, nearly frozen. His two surviving royal guardsmen insist that no, the Mordorian general never landed a blow, in fact she was losing and on the way to defeat if their own prince hadn't just keeled over – there are no marks on his body, no wounds that would have been fatal or even mildly impairing – the whole thing is a mystery.

It takes another ten years for the rumors to spread westward. During this time Mordor expands significantly to the south and has the upper hand against Mirkwood and the northern kingdoms. The old king of Mordor, under Elsa's heavy influence, has been passing many reforms over his reign, turning the once-obscure kingdom into a shining beacon of secularism and tolerance for its time – legalizing divorce, allowing women to hold high offices, unofficially tolerating homosexuals and other "deviant" ways… Neighboring powers, still under the sway of the Church, take an unfriendly view of these developments, especially as Mordor prospers and grows more powerful.

Elsa has sent spies across the land, looking for the usual spy secrets, but also with orders to keep one eye out for a particular gold-and-white wedding ring with an exact description. One of these spies (Grima Wormtongue?), when exposed and captured in the former Southern Isles province of Rohan, repeats this information under torture. A royal advisor who happens to be familiar with the old legends of the Snow Queen puts two and two together. The Rohirrim court sends messengers across the western lands, seeking an alliance of all their rivals to contain the new threat from the east.

Meanwhile, far from these events, Kai trips over a rock one day and meets the trolls (and/or Kai's father knew them, and Kai meets them that way). Grand Pabbie recognizes the ring he wears on a necklace and explains that it belonged to a great wielder of magic, who turned to the dark side due to fear of death – the downfall of many a practitioner over the ages. Anna recognizes Pabbie, but unsure of revealing herself to Kai, she waits for an opportunity to speak privately with Pabbie, when she's in his hand being examined by him.

Pabbie briefly takes Anna to an adjacent room and they have a brief argument. Something along these lines:  
"What your sister has done to you is not right. Your time is long past due."  
"Why should it be? Last thing I remember we were fighting for enlightenment and justice. Maybe we were meant to stick around and bring everyone into a more tolerant era."  
"There are others to continue the struggle you began. You were made mortal for a reason, Anna – you are not meant to linger on as a cursed piece of jewelry."  
"I was meant to be with Elsa. Can't you see how perfect we are together?"

Elsa seems to have vanished from history, but recent rumors from the far east have given them a fresh lead to investigate. Pabbie offers Kai a quest to help him take Elsa's ring to a safe place, while he seeks a way to undo the dark magic within it.

_**Alternate Ending A:** Pabbie tells Kai the origin of the ring and urges him to return it to its owner, rather than destroy it. Kai and Gerda are richly rewarded by Elsa and return to their home as heroes. 30 years later, as elderly grandparents to a large household, they are surprised by a visit from Elsa – who has retired from her military service in Mordor to live her next "life" in Arendelle. They become friends thereafter and even get the privilege of wearing Anna for a short time. She profusely thanks them for reuniting her with Elsa and fills them with contentment._

Main Plot Branch:

Kai and Gerda decide that this will make a nice final adventure before they settle down into the marriage and family that are expected of them. They agree to Pabbie's quest and spend the next two weeks making arrangements and saying their goodbyes. Then they set out for nearby Bree (formerly Weselton?), accompanied by their two lifelong friends (Rapunzel/Eugene filling the roles of Merry/Pippin?) who also need to check some adventure off their bucket lists. [Optional: they might be a polyamorous 4-way.]

Unbeknownst to them, one of Elsa's agents overheard the news by chance and rushes to report this latest tidbit. Receiving the news two weeks later, Elsa promptly sends her nine best assassins – the Nazgul ("dark riders") – to retrieve the precious ring.

In Bree, waiting for Pabbie and further guidance, Kai and his fellow hobbits are accosted by the Nazgul. Just as they attack, they are driven off by a passing knight (Kristoff riding Sven? Or maybe it's Wandering Oaken). Pabbie arrives later and asks Kristoff (or Oaken, as the case may be) to escort the teenagers to Rivendell where he will meet them again.

_**Alternate Ending B:** Kai loses the ring to the Nazgul at Bree. Now the nine Nazgul face an epic journey to return the ring safely to Mordor, where Elsa desperately awaits. They declare themselves the Fellowship of the Ring (aka the Ring-Wraiths) and make their way south and east, fighting off companies of Rangers pursuing them across the countryside. Their path becomes more difficult when they arrive in the densely populated territory of Gondor, whose king was alerted by Pabbie to keep the Nazgul away from home. When Elsa learns of the numerous Gondorian forces blocking their way, she makes a desperate gamble to lure the Gondorian armies away from her Nazgul's path by invading Gondor further to the south, thus initiating the War of the Ring. The distraction succeeds (though costing many casualties in battle) and Elsa withdraws back to her own more-defensible borders upon receiving news of the Nazgul's successful return. She is pursued by the newly-reinforced enemy and makes her stand at the Black Gate, with Anna once again on her ring finger just like old times._

Main Plot Branch:

At Rivendell, the One Ring is found to be indestructible due to Elsa having poured the vast majority of her power into the ring. Pabbie and the other mages fear (incorrectly) that Elsa might regain the use of all her legendary power if she obtains the One Ring again. To prevent this, the One Ring must be dropped into the lava of Mt. Doom, the only active volcano in the land – the destruction of the ring will naturally cause Elsa's death as well, since the ring holds most of the power that is unnaturally extending her life. Unfortunately, Mt. Doom is now effectively ruled by Elsa, since Mordor's king values her advice so greatly, and "one cannot simply walk into Mordor."

Sitting on the table, being talked about like a mere object (and in the context of being used to bring down her own sister), Anna finally yells out in frustration, her voice coming out as a loud whisper to the assembled council. The wise men of the age listen in fascination as Anna tells the true story of two sisters sharing a love across centuries. She pleads for her sister's life, promising that Elsa will never wage an offensive war in her presence, even though they've been apart for five centuries. She pledges to assist the Fellowship on their journey if they bring her to Elsa and equally to hinder them if they seek any other objective.

The council is unconvinced. One wizard haughtily tells Anna that she cannot possibly be "the real Anna" because no one as inexperienced as Elsa could have pulled off a genuine soul-transferring spell on the first try. Pabbie is more open-minded and accepts the possibility that Elsa could have pulled it off given the great power of love, but he states that Elsa's crime of subverting death is unforgivable. Everything that has a beginning must have an end, and Elsa cannot be allowed to remain an exception to the laws of nature – nor can Anna.

The princes and kings on the council weigh in. They see Elsa as a threat both because of her liberal politics and because her immortality upsets the balance of power among nations. Even if Elsa begins as a beneficent ruler, her fellow rulers do not trust her to remain so permanently, especially given her past use of dark magic which would likely have corrupted her over time. The ancestors of today's rulers may have unjustly provoked Elsa five centuries prior, but now she has had five centuries to stew over her defeat and plot her revenge. Today's rulers imagine themselves in Elsa's shoes and cannot imagine that she would be merciful to them now. In their own self-interest, they advocate an end to Elsa's reign.

Several of the royals in attendance are distantly descended from the old Southern Isles royal family that Anna so successfully tore apart long ago. They are separate kingdoms rather than a unified empire now because of her machinations back then, and although locked into rivalries with each other, all share a nominal goal of reuniting the old Southern Isles, and all hold a grudge against the One Ring that split them asunder.

As a result, the council unanimously agrees that the One Ring is to be destroyed, together with its bound spirit known as Anna. Pabbie calls for volunteers to infiltrate Elsa's land and attempt to destroy her ring right under her nose. The four hobbits, one wizard (Pabbie) and one ranger (Kristoff/Oaken) are joined by three more volunteers: Merida the archer, Oaken the axeman (or Kristoff, if Oaken is the ranger), and some Gondorian prince who will play the "Boromir" role. The Fellowship of the Ring is formed and departs on their long journey.

_**Alternate Ending C:** In an effort to sabotage the mission and escape, Anna whispers seductively to the Gondor prince, persuading him to try to take her for himself. Though the Fellowship is broken, Kai and Gerda escape with Anna and continue on their way, while the prince comes to his senses and sacrifices himself to save the rest of the party. Anna realizes she's come to see Kai and Gerda as friends and regrets betraying them, and finally breaks down after weeks of getting the silent treatment from them. Kai and Gerda may or may not forgive/reconcile with her._

Main Plot Branch:

For the first month or two, Anna alternates between fruitless escape attempts, yelling and throwing tantrums, or sulking in silence. Eventually, resigned to the continuation of the journey, Anna changes her approach and tries to befriend her captors. The Fellowship is suspicious at first, but gradually warms up to her innate friendly personality. Over many evenings around the campfire they learn more about each other than they ever intended. Anna has firsthand knowledge of an ancient historical era and proves to be full of fascinating stories. A turning point comes when Anna forgets to take the chance to escape after an obvious slip-up by the Fellowship. She admits that she's become attached to her captors just as they have come to appreciate her company, even though they remain mortal enemies. She can't yet bring herself to abandon her first actual friends after 500 years of loneliness as a ring-bound spirit.

They don't have the words to say it, but the One Ring might just have developed a bit of Stockholm Syndrome.

Months later, the surviving members of the Fellowship travel through Gondor, and their friendship with Anna (whom they've long since stopped calling "the ring" or anything else other than her name) is inevitably strained by the approaching end. The Fellowship is not sure whether Anna will help them sneak into Mordor before she betrays them to return to her Elsa. When the topic is brought up during one evening meal, Anna admits that she herself hasn't decided when to attempt her final escape. Anna invites the Fellowship to stay in Elsa's kingdom with her, so that they will not have to separate, but they all must decline out of loyalty to their own peoples.

Kai and Gerda do manage to sneak into Mordor, but the approaches to Mt. Doom are heavily guarded, and Elsa herself has moved from Mordor's capital and set up camp at the mountain.

_**Alternate Ending D:** Kai and Gerda are captured on their way to Mt. Doom and brought to Elsa. She takes the One Ring from Kai, then announces that next she is going to ride to war and take her revenge on the world that took Anna away from her. Kai and Gerda look at each other in sorrow, knowing they have failed with so many lives depending on them. Except they haven't – for with their help over the last several months, Anna has returned to the kind spirit she always was, and persuades Elsa to let go of the past, and start over as they are now, together again for eternity. Elsa and Anna ask Kai and Gerda to help them avert the coming war and save thousands of lives on both sides. Kai and Gerda decide to trust the older less-conventional royal couple. They return to Gondor, where an alliance of all the kingdoms of the West is gathering in preparation for war, and pretend that they succeeded in dropping the One Ring into Mt. Doom. Kai tells a pre-rehearsed story about how Elsa tried to stop him and died before his eyes after the One Ring was destroyed, thus allowing him to narrowly escape. Later, as the Men of the West are dispersing to return to their homes, glad that they will not have to march to war, Kai and Gerda privately confess the truth to Pabbie. He is disappointed, seeing that they let slip their one opportunity to "make things right" and remedy Elsa's crime against magic. But what is done cannot be undone, and for now they can only hope that love, the force that is powerful and strange, continues to stave off the corruption of the two immortal sisters._

Main Plot Branch:

To draw Elsa away from her mountain, the rest of the Fellowship leads a grand alliance of the West to attack Mordor. The Men of the West break through the Black Gate, forcing Elsa to deploy her reserve forces in battle rather than using them to guard the mountain. Finally, after days of battle, Mordor's lines are breached and Elsa is forced to ride to the front to stabilize the situation. Kai and Gerda sneak in behind her and quietly climb the slopes of Mt. Doom.

On the battlefield Elsa confronts Pabbie and the rest of the Fellowship, realizing too late that they do not in fact have her precious Anna with them. She races back up the mountain to intercept Kai but is too late.

_**Alternate Ending E:** Kai walks up to the ledge, but he cannot bring himself to throw Anna into the lava. She has grown on him, and he now thinks of her as a friend, rather than a sorcerer's item to be destroyed. Despite Gerda's urging, Kai puts the ring on instead of destroying it. Elsa rushes in, knocking Gerda aside when she tries to interfere, and grabs Kai and spins him around, sitting him down and begging him for the ring, offering anything he wants in return. Kai hesitantly hands over the ring, Elsa puts it on and then surprises him with a grateful bear hug, during which he realizes that she's unusually cold… Meanwhile Gerda thinks Kai has been bewitched and desperately tries to "save" her friend, rushing over from behind and stabbing Elsa in the back – except she can't pull her sword out, as Elsa uses her snow-golem body to freeze the sword in place and then spins around, ripping the sword away from Gerda's grasp. Elsa grabs the sword and is about to kill Gerda with it, but Anna stops her. Kai and Gerda watch in amazement and realize that their allies were wrong about Elsa, it seems Anna was telling the truth the whole time and she really isn't an evil ruler at all. Meanwhile, the Fellowship and the Men of the West have fought their way to the foot of Mt. Doom, when they see Elsa emerge from the entrance to Mt. Doom leading Kai and Gerda by the hand. She calls for a cease-fire and to her enemies' amazement, releases Kai and Gerda back to them without making any demands. The allies are suspicious, but Pabbie is able to confirm that they are not bewitched. Elsa tells the Men of the West that she has everything she ever wanted, and now wishes only to avoid more bloodshed. Tragically, the Westerners do not believe her, and the war continues._

Main Plot Branch:

Kai has just thrown the ring off the crack of Mt. Doom when he's shoved aside from behind only to see Elsa fall down in despair at the cliff's edge. "Nooooo!" she cries, much like Darth Vader, a cry so heartrending that Kai and Gerda wonder for a moment whether they've done the right thing. It hits them for the first time that Elsa, though immortal, is as human as any of them… her grief at losing the One Ring is not that of a queen parted from her treasure, but rather a woman mourning her beloved. Kai came with the intent of destroying a sorceress's ring of power, but he now feels the guilt of having murdered a lonely girl who just wanted her older sister back. It had to be done, but he wishes it didn't have to be him.

Moments later there's a massive eruption from the volcano as all of Elsa's powers are cataclysmically released. Elsa's body suddenly melts apart and her head falls lifeless in the center of the puddle. Kai and Gerda are rescued from the splattering lava by their allies, who have just broken through the lines and are just in time to see Elsa's demise. "The witch queen is dead!" The cheer spreads throughout the Western army, until they look up to see the massive image of Elsa's spirit floating in the sky, freed at last. Elsa angrily reaches out towards the Westerners as if to strangle them with her bare hands, her tear-stained face zooming towards them in grief and rage. The frightened soldiers recoil as her ghostly hands reach for them…

Suddenly Elsa stops and looks back – there's a hand on her ghostly shoulder, stopping her. Anna floats in the sky behind her, giving her an adorable loving look. Both armies watch in awe as Elsa pulls back and turns to Anna with a wondrous smile. The two spirits embrace over Mt. Doom, and then turn and wave to all the men on the ground far below as they dissipate in a gust of wind.

A cease-fire is quickly arranged, and the War of the Ring comes to an end shortly afterwards. Mordor quietly retains some of Elsa's reforms.


End file.
